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Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence is signed preventing King George’s ability to stop the colonies from naturalizing settlers. -
First Naturalization Act
Any Free,white,male/female alien living in the jurisdiction of the US was eliigable for citizenship after 2 years.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/naturalization-act-of-1870/ -
Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
Congress enacted deportation laws targeting persons deemed political threats to the United States in response to conflicts in Europe. -
Indian Removal Act
Authorized the complication of Native American land and provided resources for their removal west of the Mississippi River (trail of tears). -
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Mexican American War
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California Gold Rush
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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
When the Treaty of Guadalupe was signed it extended citizenship to all the people that lived in the new territory after the Mexican War had ended. -
People v. Hall
California Supreme Court Case ruled that the testimony of a Chinese man who witnessed a murder by a white man was inadmissible, denying Chinese, native, and black Americans the status in court to testify against white Americans. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Supreme Court Ruling that slaves and free black Americans were not citizens and were not entitled to rights of citizenship, such as the right to sue in court. -
13th Amendment
Slavery is abolished but does not grant former slaves full citizenship. Involuntary Servitude is also abolished except for a punishment for crimes.
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-xiii -
14th Amendment
One of the most important reconstruction Amendments giving citizenship, and protection to previously enslaved African-Americans.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/ -
Naturalization Act of 1870
Extended Naturalization Rights to African Slaves that had not been born in the US. Asian immigrants had remained excluded from this rule, along with other groups of people.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/naturalization-act-of-1870/ -
Chy Lung v. Freeman
a US Supreme Court case that ruled that the powers to set rules surrounding immigration and to manage foreign relations rest with the US federal government, rather than that of the states
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/92/275/ -
Angelo Treaty of 1880
The Angelo treated gave the U.S. Government power to regulate
Chinese labor force by limiting the amount of passengers coming to America via ships. With this treaty the U.S. could not prohibited the immigration of Chinese immigrants 100%. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
This law was a major shift in U.S. immigration policy toward growing restrictiveness. The law targeted Chinese immigrants for restriction-- the first such group identified by race and class for severely limited legal entry and ineligibility for citizenship.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/an-act-to-execute-certain-treaty-stipulations-relating-to-chinese-aka-the-chinese-exclusion-law/ -
Immigration Act of 1882
Legislated a few months after the Chinese Exclusion Law, this immigration legislation expanded the ranks of excludable aliens to include other undesirable persons and attributes such as "convicts," "lunatics," and "those likely to become a public charge."
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/1882-immigration-act/ -
Elk v. Wilkins
The Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to Native Americans who did not automatically gain citizenship by birth and could therefore be denied the right to vote
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/112/94/ -
The Dawes Allotment Act
This Act gave the President the power to allot or separate land holdings and reservation lands. By giving up the land allotted to the Indians they could become citizens.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/the-dawes-allotment-act/ -
Scott Act
Congress extended domestic authority over immigration to improve enforcement of the Chinese exclusion laws. It abolished one of the exempt statuses, returning laborers, stranding about 20,000 Chinese holding Certificates of Return outside the United States.
https://dbpedia.org/page/Scott_Act_(1888) -
Chae Chan Ping v. United States
This Supreme Court decision affirmed the plenary powers of U.S. federal authorities over immigration matters, in this instance even when changes in U.S. immigration law reversed earlier policy and practice.] https://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/constitutional-law/constitutional-law-keyed-to-brest/from-reconstruction-to-the-new-deal-1866-1934/chae-chan-ping-v-united-states/ -
Angell Treaty of 1880
This treaty updated the 1868 Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing the United Stated to restrict the migration of certain categories of Chinese workers. It moved U.S. immigration policy closer to outright Chinese exclusion.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/angell-treaty-of-1880/ -
Immigration Act of 1891
Created the Immigration Bureau
This 1891 immigration law clarified and centralized the immigration enforcement authority of the federal government, extended immigration inspection to land borders, and expanded the list of excludable and deportable immigrants.
https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/our-history/overview-of-agency-history/origins-of-the-federal-immigration-service -
Geary Act
Congress renewed the Chinese exclusion laws and expanded enforcement mechanisms by requiring that Chinese prove their lawful presence in the United States by carrying a Certificate of Residence, a precursor of the green card system, or be liable for detention and deportation.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/geary-act/ -
Fong Yue Ting v. United States
This Supreme Court decision ruled as constitutional the 1892 Geary Act's requirement that Chinese residents, and only Chinese residents, carry Certificates of Residence to prove their legal entry to the United States, or be subject to detention and deportation.
[https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-fong-yue-ting-v-united-states] -
Plessy v. Ferguson
By using the 14th Amendment the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation legal as long as the facilities were equal this act created the slogan “separate but equal”.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/163/537 -
Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907-1908
This Agreement gave the Japanese Government the power to restrict immigration of laborers. Wealthy Japanese men could bring there families creating a better balance of Japanese men and women within the U.S. especially in the west.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Gentlemens-Agreement -
Expatriation Act of 1907
Under the principle that women assumed the citizenship of their husbands, this act stripped citizenship from U.S.-born women when they married noncitizen immigrant men. -
Alien Land Laws in California (1913 & 1920)
California, along with many other western states, enacted laws that banned "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning or leasing land. The Supreme Court upheld these laws as constitutional.
https://immigrationhistory.org/timeline/ -
Jones-Shafroth Act (1917)
This act enacted U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans after the United States acquired the island as an incorporated territory in 1898.
https://immigrationhistory.org/timeline/ -
Emergency Quota Law (1921)
Fears of increased immigration after the end of World War I and the spread of radicalism propelled Congress to enact this "emergency" measure imposing drastic quantitative caps on immigration. -
Cable Act of 1922
After women gained suffrage with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Congress swiftly enacted this law to restore citizenship to U.S.-born women who had married noncitizen husbands and thereby lost their citizenship under the Expatriation Act of 1907. -
Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)
To further limit immigration, this law established extended "national origins" quotas, a highly restrictive and quantitatively discriminatory system. The quota system would remain the primary means of determining immigrants' admissibility to the United States until 1965. -
Indian Citizenship Act
Also known as the Snyder Act, it granted all Indians citizenship, after decades of being bombarded with white supremacy, being forced out of their native lands, or killed, the Indian Tribes of North America could finally be natural citizens. -
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
This law stipulated that all Native Americans born in the United States were automatically citizens by birth. Native Americans were the last main group to gain this right set forth in the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Blease’s Law
Illegal Immigration became illegal the Undesirable Aliens Act of 1929 was aimed at the Mexican border. The Act was made to arrest a illegal immigrant for a misdemeanor followed by deportation if that same person was to cross again and be caught he would then be charged with a felony, with up to 2 years in prison and a $1,000 fine. Almost 44,000 Mexicans had been arrested for unlawful entry by the end of the 1930’s. -
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Mexican Repatriation
During the economic and political crises of the 1920s and 1930s, the Border Patrol launched several campaigns to detain Mexicans, including some U.S.-born citizens, and expel them across the border. -
Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934
Completing the racial exclusion of Asians, Congress imposed immigration restrictions on Filipinos by granting the Philippines eventual independence. Previously, Filipinos could immigrate freely as U.S. nationals from a colony of the United States. -
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World War II
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Bracero Agreement
During World War II, the U.S. government negotiated with the Mexican government to recruit Mexican workers, all men and without their families, to work on short-term contracts on farms and in other war industries. After the war, the program continued in agriculture until 1964. -
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Executive Order 9066
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed this war-time executive order authorizing the rounding up and incarceration of Japanese Americans living within 100 miles of the west coast. -
Repeal of Chinese Exclusion (1943)
The importance of China as the U.S. government's chief ally in the Pacific war against Japan led Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion laws, placing China under the same immigration restrictions as European countries. -
Luce-Celler Act of 1946
This law further undermined Asian exclusion by extending naturalization rights and immigration quotas to Filipinos and Indians as wartime allies. -
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Korean War
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Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
The McCarran-Walter Act reformed some of the obvious discriminatory provisions in immigration law. While the law provided quotas for all nations and ended racial restrictions on citizenship, it expanded immigration enforcement and retained offensive national origins quotas. -
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Operation Wetback
Even as the bracero program continued to recruit temporary workers from Mexico, the Immigration Bureau led round ups of Mexican nationals. The Bureau claimed to have deported one million Mexicans. -
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Vietnam War
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Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966
After Fidel Castro's revolution, anti-communist Cubans received preferential immigration conditions because they came from a historically close U.S. neighbor and ally. This law provided them permanent status and resources to help adjustment to life in the U.S. -
Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act (1975)
The United States made provisions to admit about 135,000 Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians in the months following the fall of Saigon, resettle them across the United States with resources to help them establish new lives. -
Mariel Boatlift of 1980
The Mariel boatlift refers to the mass movement of approximately 125,000 Cuban asylum seekers to the United States from April to October 1980. It prompted the creation of the Cuban-Haitian Entrant Program. -
Plyler v. Doe (1982)
This Supreme Court case ruled that public school districts cannot constitutionally refuse admission to unauthorized immigrant children because the harmful effects to the public outweighed the cost savings. -
Korematsu v. United States (1984)
The courts vacated the 1944 Supreme Court conviction of Fred Korematsu for violating curfew orders imposed on Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) (1986)
To address the problem of unauthorized immigration, Congress implemented through bipartisan agreement a multi-pronged system that provided amnesty for established residents, increased border enforcement, enhanced requirements of employers, and expanded guestworker visa programs.
https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/irca -
Immigration Act of 1990
Congress revised the Immigration Act of 1965 by implementing the H-1B visa program for skilled temporary workers, with some provisions for conversion to permanent status, and the diversity visa lottery for populations unable to enter through the preference system. -
The Flores Settlement
The Flores settlement resulted from the 1993 Supreme Court case Reno v. Flores, regarding the treatment of unaccompanied minors in immigration detention. The settlement, currently being challenged, set federal standards for the treatment and release of children in detention.
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/flores-settlement-brief-history-and-next-steps -
Zadvydas v. Davis (2001)
This Supreme Court case ruled that immigration authorities cannot indefinitely detain aliens ordered deported, but for whom no destination can be arranged.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/533/678/ -
Homeland Security Act (2002)
The Homeland Security Act created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by consolidating 22 diverse agencies and bureaus. The creation of DHS reflected mounting anxieties about immigration in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/5005 -
Muslim Travel Ban
The "Muslim Ban" refers to a series of the Trump administration's executive orders that prohibited travel and refugee resettlement from select predominately Muslim countries. After several legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld most provisions of a third version of the ban.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/muslim-travel-ban/