Syrian Americans are citizens of the United States of Syrian ancestry or nationality. This ethnic group includes first generation immigrants, and descendants of Syrians who immigrated to the United States. It is believed that Syrians first arrived in the United States in large number in 1880. Many of the earliest Syrian Americans settled in New York, Boston, and Detroit. Immigration from Syria to the United States was stopped for a long time after the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924, which made it difficult.