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Alien and Sedition Acts
restricts citizenship to “free white persons” who reside in the United States for five years and renounce their allegiance to their former country. “Free white persons” disqualifies both African slaves and poor whites who came to the U.S. as indentured servants. -
Steerage Act
ship captains must submit manifests with information about immigrants onboard to the Collector of Customs, the secretary of state, and Congress. -
Treaty of Guadalupe
Mexican-American War is settled with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in which MEXICO lost half of its territory, and the United States gained Texas, New Mexico, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and half of Colorado. Mexicans living in the newly ceded U.S. territory had a year to decide whether they wanted to keep their Mexican citizenship or switch to become U.S. citizens. Around 80,000 Mexicans decide to become U.S. citizens and 2000 move south to keep their Mexi- can citizenship. -
American Republic Party Formed
Formed by citizens opposed to the increased number of immigrants in the U.S. The nativists, or members of the Know-Nothing Movement, seek to permit only native-born Americans to run for office and try to raise the residency requirement to 25 years. -
14th Amendment
granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
prevents any Chinese without family already in the United States from immigrating. This law drastically reduces the number of Chinese immigrants entering the U.S. and creates the “paper sons” phenomenon. -
Scott Act
Amends the Chinese Exclusion Act. It bans Chinese workers from re-entering the U.S. after they left. -
Immigration Act of 1891
creates the Bureau of Immigration, which falls under the Treasury Department. The act also calls for the deportation of people who entered the country illegally and denies entry for polygamists, the mentally ill, and those with contagious diseases. -
Ellis Island Opens
Ellis Island opened to screen immigrants entering on east coast. (Angel Island screened those on west coast.) Ellis Island officials reported that women traveling alone must be met by a man, or they were immediately deported. -
Anarchist Exclusion Act
denies anarchists, other political extremists, beggars, and epileptics entry into the U.S. It's the first time individuals are banned from the U.S. based on political beliefs. -
Expatriation Act
The act was intended to protect the rights of naturalized immigrants whose native countries did not recognize expatriation claims.. -
National Origins Act
reduces the annaul cap on the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S., this time to 150,000. The 2% quota is linked to 1920 census data, thereby further limiting the number of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
Enacted June 30, 1968, The law is passed with the intent to make the immigration system at least seem more fair toward people of color, but the authors did not foresee the radical consequences that it would have on the demographics of the United States. -
Refugee Act
removes refugees as a preference category; reduces worldwide ceiling for immigration to 270,000. -
USA Partiot Act
Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. Its title is a ten-letter backronym (U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T.) that stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001".
