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Naturalization Act
The Naturalization Act of 1790 created the regulations for the first time in allowing the United States to offer naturalization to other people not born in the U.S., but was not given to slaves or Asian immigrants. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush brought many immigrants from around the world with the hopes of striking it rich. The immigrants were mainly of Chinese descent with over 20,000 coming into the country. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The first significant laws to restrict immigration into the United States. The laws were created to prevent Asian immigrants from further entering the country because of upset workers on the West Coast. -
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution lasted for about a decade and many immigrants seeked and found shelter in the United States to avoid the violence and turmoil back home. -
Immigration Act of 1917
The act was passed by Congress after Wilson had vetoed it, which required immigrants to take a literacy test and banned all Asian workes among many other banned people as well, such as homosexuals and mentally/physically disabled. -
Emergency Quota Act
This act proved to be a tunring point in U.S. immigration in the long run because it put a limit of the number of people allowed to enter the country from Europe and used a quota system to determine those limits. -
Immigration Act of 1924
This act was passed creating a U.S. federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants to be admitted into the country. The act also set up the Border Patrol that is still in effect today. -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
This was a major landmark in U.S. Immigration history, which set a maximum level quota for immigration visas at 300,000 and placed a per-country limit on the Eastern Hemisphere. -
Refugee Act
This act was created to set a permanent procedure for the country's acceptance of refugees seeking asylum in the United States from other countries of humanitarian concern. -
Unauthorized Immigrant Population
INS collects the first detailed national estimates of the amount of unauthorized immigrants residing in the United States, which was around 3.4 million. -
Minuteman Project
In Arizona, a controversial group calling itself the Minuteman Project recruited men and women to patrol the border in order to find and locate undocumented immigrants. The group had about 450 volunteers from around the country during its initiation. -
Secure Fence Act
George W. Bush signed this act that authorized the construction of 700 miles of double-layered fencing along the country's border in the South and also directed Homeland Security to take any necessary steps in stoping unlawful entry into the country including personnel and surveillance technology. -
SB 1070
The controversial Arizona bill that made it a state crime to reside illegaly in that state and all legal citizens will be required to carry paperwork proving their citizenship. Police will also have the capability to stop and question anyone they "reasonably suspect" of being undocumented. -
Blocking of SB 1070
A federal judge blocked key parts of Arizona's SB 1070 immigration reform bill on the night before it was to be implemented. -
Obama & Undocumented Immigrants
President Obama makes an executive action that will allow thousands of children that came to the country as undocumented immigrants to stay in the country and be able to work without the fear of deportation.
