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Nationality Act of 1790
This was the first statute to define naturalization eligibility and create requirements and procedures for immigrants to become citizens of the United States. This crucial privilege was initially confined to "free white persons" by Congress. -
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Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
In reaction to tensions in Europe, Congress enacted deportation rules targeting people believed to be political risks to the US. -
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Ban on “importation” of “any negro, mulatto, or other person of colour”
In response to the Haitian revolt, Congress passed a law prohibiting free blacks from entering the country in order to keep anti-slavery activists at bay. -
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Indian Removal Act
This statute was passed during Andrew Jackson's administration, and it allowed for the confiscation of Native American land and the funding of their forced transfer west of the Mississippi River. -
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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This treaty confirmed the United States' annexation of a large chunk of northern Mexico, El Norte, and granted citizenship to Mexicans who chose to remain in the territory as part of the Mexican-American War settlement. -
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Passenger Cases
The Supreme Court has declared that the power to create and enforce immigration limits belongs to the federal government rather than to states or local governments. -
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People v. Hall
The evidence of a Chinese man who observed a white man's murder was found to be inadmissible in this California Supreme Court case, depriving Chinese, along with Native and African Americans, of the right to testify in court against whites. -
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Dred Scott v. Sanford
This Supreme Court decision established that slaves and free African Americans were not citizens of the United States and were therefore not entitled to citizenship rights and benefits such as the right to suit in federal courts. -
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Emancipation Proclamation
The presidential order signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 liberating the slaves held in Confederate states. -
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Immigration Act of 1864
In an attempt to stimulate immigration to the United States, this statute permitted labor recruitment techniques comparable to indentured slavery, but it was swiftly repealed. -
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to provide equitable treatment for African Americans following the Civil War, gave birthright citizenship to all people born in the United States. Equal protection and due process were also guaranteed for all legal inhabitants. -
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Burlingame Treaty
This international agreement was negotiated during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, which relied significantly on Chinese labor. It ensured US access to Chinese employees by guaranteeing both Chinese and American rights to free movement. -
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Naturalization Act of 1870
Naturalization rights formerly enjoyed by white immigrants were explicitly provided to "aliens of African nativity and to individuals of African descent" by the Naturalization Act of 1870, limiting other nonwhite immigrant groups access to citizenship rights and protections. -
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Chinese Educational Mission 1872-1881
This initiative, which sent roughly 120 Chinese students to New England to study, is widely regarded as a pioneering endeavor in mutually beneficial international education systems that promoted information sharing and understanding while also improving international relations. -
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Page Law
This rule barred the recruitment of unfree laborers and women to the United States for "immoral purposes," but it was mostly applied against Chinese. -
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Angell Treaty of 1880
This deal revised the 1868 Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing the US to limit some kinds of Chinese workers from migrating to the US. It pushed US immigration policy closer to outright exclusion of Chinese people. -
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Chinese Exclusion Act
This statute marked a significant shift in US immigration policy toward greater restrictions. The statute singled out Chinese immigrants as the first group to be singled out for legal admission restrictions and citizenship ineligibility based on race and class. -
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Elk v. Wilkins
The Supreme Court concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to Native Americans who did not receive citizenship immediately by birth and hence might be denied the right to vote. -
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The Dawes Allotment Act
Because of Native Americans' dissatisfaction with the reservation system, Congress authorized the president to allot – or divide into individual landholdings – tribal reservation lands. Native Americans who received allotments might become citizens of the United States, although they frequently lost their land. -
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Scott Act of 1888
To increase enforcement of the Chinese exclusion restrictions, Congress expanded its domestic jurisdiction over immigration. Returning laborers were one of the exempt statuses that was repealed, leaving around 20,000 Chinese with Certificates of Return stranded outside the United States. -
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Immigration Act of 1891
This 1891 immigration law simplified and centralized the federal government's immigration enforcement authorities, broadened the list of excludable and deportable aliens, and extended immigration inspection to land borders. -
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Geary Act
Chinese exclusion rules were extended by Congress, and enforcement measures were expanded by requiring Chinese to establish their legal status in the United States by carrying a Certificate of Residence, a predecessor to the green card system, or face arrest and deportation. -
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Immigration Restriction League
Increased immigration, primarily from southern and eastern European countries, along with a succession of economic downturns stoked nativist anxieties, prompting three notable Harvard graduates to create the Immigration Restriction League. -
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Plessy v. Ferguson
This Supreme Court decision upheld racial segregation by declaring that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection requirements could be met with "separate but equal" facilities. -
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United States v. Wong Kim Ark
This Supreme Court case set the rule that everybody born in the United States is a citizen by birth, regardless of color or parental status. -
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Extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act
In response to the Chinese government's efforts to leverage better conditions for Chinese tourists to the United States by abrogating earlier accords, Congress prolonged the Chinese exclusion restrictions in perpetuity. In protest, Chinese communities staged an anti-American boycott. -
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Anti-American Boycott
To protest the Chinese Exclusion rules, an international coalition of Chinese merchants and students organized boycotts of American goods and services in China and certain Southeast Asian cities. -
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Alien Land Laws in California
Many western states, including California, established laws prohibiting "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning or leasing land. These laws were upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional. -
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Jones-Shafroth Act
After the United States annexed Puerto Rico as an incorporated territory in 1898, this act granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. -
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Emergency Quota Law
Fears about rising immigration following World War I's conclusion, as well as the growth of radicalism, prompted Congress to pass this "emergency" resolution setting strict quantitative limits on immigration.