Signed by Lyndon Johnson at the base of the Statue of Liberty on October 3, 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart–Celler) abolished the 1924 national-origins quotas that had privileged Northern and Western European immigration and replaced them with a uniform per-country cap and preference categories emphasizing family reunification and needed skills. The Act transformed the American demographic profile. It remains the framework governing U.S. legal immigration today.