US immigration policy under President Donald Trump is drawing comparisons to one of the most restrictive chapters in American history: the immigration crackdown of the 1920s, according to a New York Times analysis.

The comparison centers on a recurring pattern in US policy. A century ago, Washington moved sharply to limit arrivals from particular groups of newcomers, imposing national-origin ceilings and quotas that reshaped the country's immigration profile for decades. The Times report argues that today's measures echo that turn, both in substance and in political tone.

Why the 1920s comparison matters. The quota laws of that era — above all the Immigration Act of 1924 — did not simply reduce overall numbers. They selected who could come, ranking would-be arrivals by origin and effectively barring entire categories of newcomers. Historians cited in the report see a similar selectivity in the current administration's approach: policy is aimed not only at how many people enter, but at who is admitted and who is kept out.

The parallel also extends to rhetoric. The 1920s restrictions followed years of public agitation over who counted as a desirable immigrant. The Times analysis notes that the present debate over admissions, asylum and enforcement plays out against the same underlying question, even though the legal framework and the countries at the center of the argument have changed.

What has not changed is the mechanism of policy. In both eras, the decisive tools have been executive action and statute: presidential proclamations, enforcement priorities and congressional legislation. Readers tracking the current measures should anchor any questions about their own situation to the primary sources — the text of executive orders and the official guidance published by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security.

The historical record offers one clear lesson. The 1920s system remained in force for roughly four decades before Congress dismantled it with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Policy turns of this scale, in other words, outlast the administrations that launch them.

Whether the current measures will prove similarly durable is the open question the report leaves with its readers. What is certain is that the comparison itself has entered mainstream discussion of US immigration policy, and it frames today's debates within a much longer arc of American decisions about which newcomers the country accepts.

Passport File is following the administration's immigration measures and their historical context and will report further details as official documentation becomes available.