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Period: to
Immigration
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The Naturalization Act of 1790
Establishes a uniform rule of naturalization and a two-year residency requirement for aliens who are "free white persons" of "good moral character". -
Irish Potato Famine
Lead to a new period of mass immigration to the United States.(The crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant. The causative agent of late blight is the water mold Phytophthora infestans. The Irish famine was the worst to occur in Europe in the 19th century) -
The Immigration Act of 1882
The Immigration Act of 1882 levies a tax of 50 cents on all immigrants landing at US ports and makes several categories of immigrants ineligible for citizenship, including "lunatics" and people likely to become public charges. -
The shift
The demographic trends in immigration to the United States shift as immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe substantially increases, while the relative proportion of immigration from Northern and Western Europe begins to decrease. -
Ellis Island's opening
Ellis Island, the location at which more than 16 million immigrants would be processed, opens in New York City. -
Arrival
8,795,386 immigrants arrive -
WWI
The US enters the First World War. -
deported for russia
Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-born feminist, immigrates to the United States, where over the next 30 years she will become a prominent American anarchist. During the First World War, in 1917, she is deported to Russia for conspiring to obstruct the draft -
The First Red Scare
Leads to an outbreak of fear and violence against people deemed to be political radicals and foreigners considered to be susceptible to communist propaganda and more likely to be involved in the Bolshevik Revolution. -
The Immigration Act of 1924
Limits annual European immigration to 2% of the number of people from that country living in the United States in 1890. The Act greatly reduces immigration from Southern and Eastern European nationalities that had only small populations in the US in 1890. -
The National Origins
The National Origins Formula institutes a quota that caps national immigration at 150,000 and completely bars Asian immigration, though immigration from the Western Hemisphere is still permitted. -
The Tydings-McDuffe Act
The Tydings-McDuffe Act grants the Philippines independence from the United States on July 4, 1946, but strips Filipinos of US citizenship and severely restricts Filipino immigration to the United States. -
The Alien Registration Act
The Alien Registration Act requires the registration and fingerprinting of all aliens in the United States over the age of 14. -
Easy way in
Immigrants can enter the country by air, by sea, and by land routes through Canada and Mexico, making it easier than ever to enter the country illegally. Through the 80s and 90s, illegal immigration was a constant topic of political debate. -
Secure Fence Act
when Congress enacted the Secure Fence Act after the Senate failed to adopt immigration reform legislation that had passed the House in 2005.
