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Naturalization Act of 1798
This act increased the amount of time necessary for immigrants to become citizens from five years to fourteen years. -
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
On this date the United States prohibited the importation of slaves into the country. Although not well inforced, this made slave trade in America illegal. -
Great Famine (Ireland)
(Summer of 1845)
When Ireland had its Great Potato Famine, many Irish people found themselves migrating to America due to the shortage of food.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm -
Chinese Immigrants Begin to Enter America
(Year of 1849)
Many Chinese people begin to immigrate to the United States, and they quickly become the superior labor force in the building of the transcontinental railroad. -
Elections of 1854
(Fall of 1854)
After immigration in America rises, after the major immigration of Irish people, the Know-Nothing Party (American Party) gains power based on the idea of restricting immigration -
Anti-Coolie Act of 1862
Coolie refers to Chinese Immigrants,
This is an act passed by California legislation to Protect Free White Labor Against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor, and to Discourage The Immigration of the Chinese into the State of California. -
Naturalization Act of 1870
This bill granted "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent" to becomes citizens of the United States, yet did not include other non-whit individuals. -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
This act halted entry of Chinese Immigrants into the United States. This act was the first to establish the federal goverment's right to restrist immigration based on nationalities, as they believed it "that it endangered the good order of certain localities." -
Immigration Act of 1882
This Act stated that a $0.50 charge would tax would be placed on each immigrant that landed on United States ports. -
Expatriation Act of 1907
This act stated that American women who marry immigrants would lose their citizenship. This helped the prevention of immigrants becoming U.S. citizens. -
Immigration Act of 1917
A law which restricted the immigration of "undesirables" from other countries. This showed our country as an extremely xenophobic country. -
Emergency Immigration Act of 1921
"The Act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country annually to 3% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States as of the U.S. Census of 1910.[2] Based on that formula, the number of new immigrants admitted fell from 805,228 in 1920 to 309,556 in 1921-22." (Murray). -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Abolished national orgins system established in the 1920s, and instead replaced it with a ystem focused on immigrants with skills and/or family relationships with US Citizens or residents. -
Immigration Control and Reform Act
An act that:
- Required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status.- Made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants.- Granted amnesty to certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants.- Granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously. -
1996 Illegal Immigration Reform & Immigrant Responsibility Act
This Act strengthened border enforcement. It also stated that if an individual was not a citizen in America, then they would not recieve any of the benefits that citizens recieved. -
Patriot Act
This act was a response to the September 11th attacks on America. This act created a department of homeland security and border control was increased. Along with these things restrictions on immigration were stricter, and the country's overall feeling of those who were different had become extremely negative. -
SB 1070 - Arizona Legislation
(April 2010)
An act signed by Arizona governor Jan Brewer that requires all aliens over the age of 14 to register with the government if they lived in the state for over 30 days. Thes immigrants also had to carry all their documentation papers on them at all times or they risked getting arrested. This has been known as one of the strictes immigration legislation to ever be passed.
