American Evolution of National Citizenry Timeline

By InaCropper

  • Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence protests England’s limiting naturalization of foreigners in the colonies.

  • Rule of Naturalization

    U.S. Constitution, under Article I, Congress is “to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” eventually giving the federal government the sole authority over immigration.

  • Bill of Rights

    The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. The Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people.

  • Nationalization Act of 1790

    Naturalization Act of 1790 provides the first rules to be followed by the United States in granting national citizenship to “free white people.” The birth of citizenship

  • Treaty of Guadulupe Hidalgo

    Officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic. It is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 February 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of Mexico City) between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican American War (1846–1848).

  • The Dred Scott Decision

    A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that African Americans were forbidden from applying for American citizenship or becoming an United States citizens, even if they resided in free states.

  • Slavery Ambolished

    Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery, although it did not grant formerly enslaved persons the full rights of citizenship.

  • African American Granted Citizenship

    In 1868 when the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution African American was granted citizenship. However, they still had limited rights.

  • Naturalization Act of 1870

    The Naturalization Act of 1870 was a United States federal law that created a system of controls for the naturalization process and penalties for fraudulent practices. It is also noted for extending the naturalization process to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent" but maintaining exclusion of the process to naturalized Chinese Americans and other groups.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is the first U.S. law to ban immigration based on race or nationality; it would be repealed in 1943.

  • United States v. Wong Kim Ark

    U.S. Supreme Court rules in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that any child born in the United States, regardless of race or parents’ citizenship status, is an American citizen.

  • Jones-Sharfroth Act

    Allowed U.S. citizens to live in Puerto Rico

  • First Quota Law Passed

    It limited the annual number of immigrants based on country of origin.

  • Indian Citizenship Act

    Extended U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans

  • Alien Registration Act

    Alien Registration Act requires all non-citizen adults to register with the government and empowers the president to deport foreigners suspected of spying or being a security risk.

  • Nationality Act

    The law revised "the existing nationality laws of the U.S. into a more complete nationality code"; it defined those persons who were "eligible for citizenship through birth or naturalization" and clarified "the status of individuals and their children born or residing in the continental U.S.

  • Immigration Act

    Eliminates race as a bar to immigration or citizenship

  • Civil Rights Act

    The ban of civilian discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

  • Hart Celler Act

    Abolished the national origin quota system, replacing it with a preference system that focuses on immigrations' skills and family relationships with citizens or U.S. residents.

  • The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

    Grants amnesty to millions of individuals living in the United States who entered the country before January 1, 1982.

  • USA Patriot Act

    Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden the scope of aliens' ineligible for admission or deportation to include terrorist activities