In the years surrounding World War II the American public was concerned about the fate of European Jews but was unwilling to do anything about it at the time.

The U.S. was going through the Depression at the time and due to that and ever increasing antisemitism (hatred of jews) the U.S. State department did not raise their quota for immigration (amount of people per year they are willing to take in). It was due to the economic troubles of the country, unemployment was high there was not enough jobs to go around. If they let more people in, they will have to find work. People would be upset that these Jews could come from some other country and get  job while they lived in the U.S their whole lives and can't feed their families.

The U.S. state department and the Roosevelt administration repeatedly refused to allow for large-scale immigration of Jewish refugees.