Section 11 Provided That Aliens Entering in Violation of This Law Could

be returned at any time within one year thereafter at the expense of the person or persons, vessel, transportation company or corporation responsible for their entry, and further, that those becoming public charges within one year from causes existing prior to landing should be considered as having entered in violation of law. The provisions of this statute were unchanged until the act of March 3, 1903. This excluded persons insane within five years previous to landing, those having had two or more previous attacks at any time, paupers and all others liable to become a public charge. Section 17 delegated to the officers of the United States Public Health Service the duty of determining the condition of all immigrants. Section 20 provided that aliens coming to the United States in violation of law, or who were found to be public charges from causes existing prior to landing, could be deported at any time within two years. Section 21 authorized the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to deport any alien within three years of entering in violation of the act.

An important step in the legislative restriction of immigration was the amendment of Feb. 20, 1907. This made mandatory the exclusion of idiots, imbeciles, the feebleminded, epileptics, insane, all who had been insane within five years and persons having had two or more attacks of insanity at any time, or who were likely to become a public charge, as well as individuals not comprehended in the foregoing excluded classes but found to be suffering from mental or physical defects of such a nature as to affect their ability to earn a living.