-
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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 2,000 move south to keep their Mexican
citizenship. http://btw.mayfirst.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/immigration_timeline.pdf -
First Congressional Attempt to Centralize Immigration Control
First Congressional attempt to centralize control of immigration. The Commissioner of Immigration was appointed by the President to serve under the authority of the Secretary of State and authorized immigrant labor contracts where immigrants would pledge their wages to pay for transportation. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
Immigration Exclusion Act
The 1882 Act to Regulate Immigration prohibited entry to anyone unable to take care of himself/herself without becoming a public charge. The law was designed to exclude immigrants whose undesirable conditions might prove costly to society which included convicted criminals, the poor, and the mentally ill. -
Alien Contract Labor Law
As immigration increased in the 1880s, nativists and labor unions sought to ban Chinese immigration and to reduce the inflow of other immigrants. In 1885 the first bill through the system was the Alien Contract Labor Act, which was also called the Foran Act.The law banned importation of workers to drive down wages or break strikes, which was enough to effectively end contract labor. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
Ellis Island Opens as Immigrant Entry Checkpoint
From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. the Barge Office at the Battery was used for the processing of immigrants while the new immigration station on Ellis Island was under construction, The new structure on Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
US Congress Authorizes "Mounted Inspectors" Along the US-Mexico Border
Mounted watchmen of the U.S. Immigration Service patrolled the border in an effort to prevent illegal crossings as early as 1904, but their efforts were irregular and undertaken only when there were the resources. The Mounted Guards, operated out of El Paso, Texas never totaling to more than seventy-five. They patrolled as far west as California to restrict the flow of illegal Chinese immigration. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
Great Depression Deportation
During times of economic hardship, immigrants are often blamed. During the Great Depression, many Mexicans, both dcumented and undocumented, were sent back to Mexico.
During the 1930s, the number of deportees came to almost half a million. In Los Angeles, police rounded up and deported even people whose families had lived in the United States for generations, and many other Mexican-Americans returned to Mexico out of fear. http://btw.mayfirst.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/immigration -
Bracero Program
The United States government signed the Mexican Farm Labor Program Agreement with Mexico, legalizing and controlling Mexican migrant farmworkers along the southern border of the United States. This served as a temporary, war-related measure to supply needed workers during the early years of World War II. http://braceroarchive.org/about -
1954 Operation Wetback
The need for Mexican labor decreases after WWII ends because of the returning soldiers. As a result of the bad economy, immigrants are blamed for taking American jobs and some are deported. The Bracero program is temporarily halted and Operation Wetback forces the return of many undocumented workers to Mexico. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqo01 -
Bracero Program Ends
In 1964, Washington cancelled the Bracero program unilaterally, and a new stage emerged. The Mexican government insisted on renewing the program. The US government was not interested because migrant laborers continued to arrive without papers and outside of negotiated agreements. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
Hart-Celler Act
In 1965, the United States passed the landmark Hart-Celler Act, abolishing nation-of-origin restrictions. Passed on June 30, 1968, immigration and naturalization exclusion on the basis of race, sex, or nationality was prohibited. New immigration criteria was based on kinship ties, refugee status, and needed skills. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
IRCA
Immigration Reform and Control Act. The aim of IRCA was to make it difficult for undocumented to find employment, while at the same time providing business with a reliable supply of
cheap labor. IRCA also gave amnesty” to 3 million undocumented immigrants, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is the product of legislative efforts stimulated to passage in part by the tragedies in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center. Title IV addresses immigration-related terrorism issues. It establishes or adjusts mechanisms to bar alien terrorists from the U.S., to remove from the U.S. any who are here, to narrow asylum provisions. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
Arizona's anti-immigrant law
Requires police to determine the immigration status of someone arrested or detained when there is “reasonable suspicion” they are not in the U.S. legally. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023 -
President Obama Announced Executive Action to Prevent Deportation of Millions of Immigrants in the United States Illegally
President Barack Obama imposed the immigration reform, easing the threat of deportation for some 4.7 million undocumented immigrants. In a White House speech, Obama rejected Republican arguments that his decision to bypass Congress and take executive action was tantamount to amnesty for illegal immigrants. http://immigration.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000023
