| 1795 |
Naturalization
Act restricts citizenship to "free white persons"
who reside in the United States for five years and renounce
their allegiance to their former country. |
| 1798 |
The
Alien and Sedition Acts permit the President to deport any
foreigner deemed to be dangerous. A revised Naturalization
Act imposes a 14-year residency requirement for prospective
citizens. |
| 1802 |
Congress
reduce the residency requirement for citizenship to five years. |
| 1808 |
The
importation of slaves into the United States is prohibited. |
| 1831 |
Pennsylvania
permits bilingual instruction in English and German in its
public schools. |
| 1840s |
Irish
Potato Famine; crop failures in Germany; the onset of industrialization;
and failed European revolutions begin a period of mass immigration. |
| 1848 |
Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluding the Mexican War, extends
citizenship to approximately 80,000 Mexican residents of the
Southwest. |
| 1849 |
California
Gold Rush spurs immigration from China. |
| 1850s |
Know
Nothing political party unsuccessfully seeks to increase restrictions
on naturalization. |
| 1854 |
Chinese
immigrants are prohibited from testifying against whites in
California courts. |
| 1870 |
Naturalization
Act limits American citizenship to "white persons and
persons of African descent," barring Asians from U.S.
citizenship. |
| 1882 |
Chinese
Exclusion Act restricts Chinese immigration. |
| |
Immigration
Act of levies a tax of 50 cents per immigrant and makes several
categories of immigrants ineligible to enter the United States,
including "lunatics" and people likely to become
public charges. |
| 1885 |
Alien
Contract Labor Law bars prohibited any company or individual
from bringing foreigners into the United States under contract
to perform labor here. The only exceptions are those who were
brought to do domestic service and skilled workmen who should
be needed here to help establish some new trade or industry. |
| 1891 |
Congress
makes polygamists, "persons suffering from a loathsome
or a dangerous contagious disease," and those convicted
of "a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude" ineligible
for immigration. The act establishes the Bureau of Immigration
within the Treasury Department. |
| 1892 |
Ellis
Island opens; serves as processing center for 12 million immigrants
over the next 30 years. |
| 1901 |
After
President William McKinley is assassinated by a Polish anarchist,
Congress enacts the Anarchist Exclusion Act, which allows
immigrants to be excluded on the basis of their political
opinions. |
| 1907 |
Expatriation
Act declares that an American woman who marries a foreign
national loses her citizenship. |
| |
Under
the Gentleman's Agreement with Japan, the United States agrees
not to restrict Japanese immigration in exchange for Japan's
promise not to issue passports to Japanese laborers for travel
to the continental United States. Japanese laborer are permitted
to go to Hawaii, but are barred by executive order from migrating
from Hawaii to the mainland. |
| 1913 |
California's
Alien Land Law prohibits "aliens ineligible for citizenship"
(Chinese and Japanese) from owning property in the state.
It provides the model for Similar acts in other states. |
| 1917 |
Congress
enacts a literacy requirement for immigrants over President
Woodrow Wilson's veto. The law requires immigrants to be able
to read 40 words in some language. The law also specifies
that immigration is prohibited from Asia, except from Japan
and the Philippines. |
| 1921 |
Quota
Act limits annual European immigration to 3 percent of the
number of a nationality group in the United States in 1910. |
| 1922 |
Cable
Act partially repeals the Expatriation Act, but declares that
an American woman who marries an Asian still loses her citizenship. |
| 1923 |
In
the landmark case of United States v. Bhaghat Singh Thind,
the Supreme Court rules that Indians from the Asian subcontinent
could not become naturalized U.S. citizens. |
| 1924 |
The
Johnson-Reed Act limits annual European immigration to 2 percent
of the number of nationality group in the United States in
1890. |
| |
Oriental
Exclusion Act prohibits most immigration from Asia, including
foreign-born wives and children of U.S. citizens of Chinese
ancestry. |
| 1934 |
The
Tydings-McDuffie Act, which provided for independence for
the Philippines on July 4, 1946, strips Filipinos of their
status as U.S. nationals and severely restricted Filipino
immigration by establishing an annual immigration quota of
50. |
| 1940 |
The
Alien Registration Act requires the registration and fingerprinting
of all aliens in the United States over the age of 14. The
act classifies Korean immigrants as subjects of Japan. |
| 1942 |
Filipinos
are reclassified as U.S. citizens, making it possible for
them to register for the military. |
| |
Executive
Order 9066 authorizes the military to evacuate 112,000 Japanese
Americans from the Pacific coast and placed them in ten internment
camps. |
| 1943 |
The
Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed. By the end of the 1940s,
all restrictions on Asians acquiring U.S. citizenship are
abolished. |
| |
Congress
creates the Bracero Program a guest worker program bringing
temporary agricultural workers into the United States from
Mexico. The program ended in 1964. |
| 1944 |
In
the case of United States v. Korematsu, the Supreme Court
upholds the internment of Japanese Americans as constitutional.
|
| 1945 |
The
War Brides Act allows foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens
who had served in the U.S. armed forces to enter the United
States. |
| 1946 |
Fiancés
of American soldiers were allowed to enter the United States. |
| |
The
Luce-Cellar Act extends the right to become naturalized citizens
to Filipinos and Asian Indians. The immigration quota is 100
people a year. |
| 1948 |
The
Displaced Persons Act permits Europeans displaced by the war
to enter the United States outside of immigration quotas. |
| 1950 |
The
Internal Security Act, passed over President Harry Truman's
veto, bars admission to any foreigner who is a Communist or
who might engage in activities "which would be prejudicial
to the public interest, or would endanger the welfare or safety
of the United States." |
| 1952 |
McCarran
Walter Immigration Act, passed over President Harry Truman's
veto, affirms the national-origins quota system of 1924 and
limits total annual immigration to one-sixth of one percent
of the population of the continental United States in 1920.
The act exempts spouses and children of U.S. citizens and
people born in the Western Hemisphere from the quota. |
| 1953 |
Refugee
Relief Act extends refugee status to non-Europeans. |
| 1954 |
Operation
Wetback forces the return of undocumented workers to Mexico. |
| 1965 |
Immigration
and Nationality Act repeals the national origins quota system
and gives priority to family reunification. |
| 1980 |
Refugee
Act, enacted in response to the boat people fleeing Vietnam,
grants asylum to politically oppressed refugees. |
| 1986 |
The
Immigration Reform and Control Act gives amnesty to approximately
three million undocumented residents and provides punishments
for employers who hire undocumented workers. |
| 1988 |
The
Redress Act provides $20,000 compensation to survivors of
the World War II internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans. |
| 1990 |
The
Immigration Act of 1990 increases the number of immigrants
allowed into the United States each year to 700,000. |
| 1995 |
California
voters enact Proposition 187, later declared unconstitutional,
which prohibits providing of public educational, welfare,
and health services to undocumented aliens. |
| 1996 |
The
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
strengthens border enforcement and makes it more difficult
to gain asylum. The law establishes income requirements for
sponsors of legal immigrants. |
| |
The
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, Congress
makes citizenship a condition of eligibility for public benefits
for most immigrants. |
| 1997 |
Congress
restores benefits for some elderly and indigent immigrants
who had previously received them. |
| 1998 |
The
Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act
and the the Noncitizen Benefit Clarification and Other Technical
Amendments Act restore additional public benefits to some
immigrants. |
| |
The
American Competitiveness and Work force Improvement Act increases
the number of skilled temporary foreign workers U.S. employers
are allowed to bring into the country. |
