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Naturalization Act
The article of legislation allowed an individual to apply for citizenship if they were a free white person, being of good character, and living in the Unted States for two years. Upon recieving the courts they took an oath of allegiance which was recorded. The indivdual's citizenship was also extended to any children under the age of 21, regardless of their birthplace. -
Manifest of Immigrants Act
The Manifest of Immigrants Act was the first piece of U.S. legislation regulating the transportation of migrants to and from America and the first measure requiring that immigration statistics be kept. The United States maintained uninterrupted data on individuals coming into the country from the time this act was passed.
Concerned with the dramatic increase in immigration during 1818 and responding to several instances of high mortality on transatlantic voyages, Congress passed on March 2, 181 -
Immigration Act of 1864
Established the position of Commissioner of Immigration, reporting to the Secratary of State; validated labor contracts made by immigrants before arrival; exempted immigrants from compulsory military service; established the office of Superintendent of Immigration for New York City. -
Immigration Act of 1882
Congress passed a new Immigration Act that stated a 50 cents tax would be levied on all aliens landing at United States ports. An act in which the State Commission and officers were in charge of checking the passengers upon incoming vessels arriving in the U.S. The passengers were examined by a set of exclusionary criteria. Upon examination passengers who appeared to be convicts, lunatics, idiots or unable to take care of themselves were not permitted onto land. -
Alien Contract Labor Law
The 1885 Alien Contract Labor Law, also known as the Foran Act, was an act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its Territories, and the District of Columbia. -
Naturalization Act of 1906
Procedural safeguards for naturalization were enacted. Knowledge of English was made a basic requirement. -
Asiatic Barred Zone Act
A law passed by Congress on February 5, 1917 that restricted the immigration of 'undesirables' from other countries, including "idiots, imbeciles, epileptics, alcoholics, poor, criminals, beggars, any person suffering attacks of insanity, those with tuberculosis, and those who have any form of dangerous contagious diseases..." -
Alien Registration Act
Congress passes the Smith Act, which requires all alien residents of the United States to register with the government and criminalizes membership in or association with any group that advocates the overthrow of the government by force or violence. The Smith Act will be used to jail or deport hundreds of American Communists in the early years of the Cold War. -
Magnuson Act
This act repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, established quotas for Chinese immigration, and allowed Chinese nationals in the U.S. to become naturalized citizens. Furthermore, due to the establishment of the quota, an increase of Chinese immigration became allowable. Chinese were allowed to enter the United States and Hawaii in numbers calculated according to Section 11 of the Immigration Act of 1924. -
Alien Fiancées and Fiancés Act
The G.I. fiancée act was devised to expedite the entrance of foreign-born fiancées of members of the U.S Armed Forces that served in WWII. They were allowed to enter as a nonimmigrant temporary visitor for three months on a passport visa, but were required to provide proof of a valid marriage within that time frame. If they were not married with in the three months, then they had to leave or else face deportation. -
Displaced Persons Act
This act helped those individuals who were victims of persecution by the Nazi government or who were fleeing persecution, and someone who could not go back to their country because of fear of persecution based on race, religion or political opinions. This act dealt directly with Germany, Austria, and Italy, the French sector of either Berlin or Vienna or the American or British Zone and a native of Czechoslovakia. They were granted permanent residency and employment. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
It was meant to exclude certain immigrants from immigrating to America, post World War II and in the early Cold War. The McCarran-Walter Act moved away from excluding immigrants based simply upon country of origin. Instead it focused upon denying immigrants who were unlawful, immoral, diseased in any way, politically radical etc. and accepting those who were willing and able to assimilate into the US economic, social, and political structures, which restructured how immigration law was handled. -
Hart-Celler Act
Abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or residents of the U.S. Numerical restrictions on visas were set at 170,000 per year, not including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, nor "special immigrants." -
Refugee Act
The United States Refugee Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-212) was an amendment to the earlier Immigration and Nationality Act and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, and was created to provide a permanent and systematic procedure for the admission to the United States of refugees of special humanitarian concern to the U.S., and to provide comprehensive and uniform provisions for the effective resettlement and absorption of those refugees who are admitted. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
Among other provisions, the 1990 Immigration Act instituted the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. Starting in 1991, every year the Attorney General, decides from information gathered over the most recent five year period the regions or country that are considered High Admission or Low Admission States. A High Admission region or country is one that has had 50,000 immigrants or more acquire a permanent residency visa.
