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Naturalization Act of 1790
The first statute in the United States to codify naturalization law. Alternately known as the Nationality Act, the Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted citizenship to "any alien, being a free white person" who had been in the U.S. for two years. In effect, it left out indentured servants, slaves, and most women. This implied that black and, later, Asian immigrants were not eligible to be naturalized, but it said nothing about the citizenship status of non-white persons born on American soil. -
Indian Civilization Act of 1819
To assist reform and missionary societies in their efforts to establish schools for Indians, the federal government established a "Civilization Fund." In 1824, the federal government created a Bureau of Indian Affairs in the War Department to administer the fund. -
TRAIL OF TEARS
At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles. -
President Polk declares war on Mexico
On May 13, 1846, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly votes in favor of President James K. Polk’s request to declare war on Mexico ina dispute over Texas. Under the threat of war, theUnited Stateshad refrained from annexing Texas afterthe latterwon independence from Mexico in 1836. But in 1844, President John Tyler restarted negotiations with the Republic of Texas, culminating with a Treaty of Annexation. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
With the defeat of its army and the fall of the capital, Mexico City, in September 1847 the Mexican government surrendered to the United States and entered into negotiations to end the war. Under the terms of the treaty negotiated by Trist, Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico. This was known as the Mexican Cession and included present-day Arizona and New Mexico and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado (see Article V of the treaty). -
Foreign Miner's Tax
In the absence of federal laws that discriminated against immigrants, the state of California sought to favor immigrants of European origin by enacting special taxes that targeted the state’s Mexican and Chinese miners. -
Greaser Act was an anti-Mexican law enacted in 1855
e Greaser Act (an anti-Mexican law) was formally enacted “to protect honest people from the excesses of vagabonds.” That law allowed the police to arrest, using force if is necessary, and to deport or send to forced labor any person suspected of being a vagabond. According to that law, a vagabond is a person identified by the term “Greaser” (pejorative for Mexican) and, generally, all people of Spanish or Indian blood.” The law authorized local militias to impose terror against the Mexicans. -
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
n the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. -
Dillingham Commission
The Dillingham Commission, which began its work in 1907, had concluded by 1911 that immigration from southern and eastern Europe posed a serious threat to American society and culture and should therefore be greatly reduced. The commission's overall findings provided the rationale for the politically and economically inspired immigration restriction acts of the 1920s.The immigration reports include statistical reviews, emigration and immigration conditions in Europe and other parts of the world, -
Cultural assimilation between the years of 1790–1920
The first “choice” was for a tribe to assimilate into the dominant American culture, become "civilized," give up tribal ways and be absorbed into America society. Many tribes tried this, many times through history. Education was the tool for assimilation in the boarding school experience. The government push to assimilate native tribes continued through the 1950s Urban Relocation Program. -
Mexican Repatriation refers to a forced return to Mexico of people of Mexican descent from the United States between 1929 and 1936.
Special law authorized by President Hoover.During the Great Depression, counties and cities in the American Southwest and Midwest forced Mexicans to leave the U.S. over concerns they were taking jobs away from whites despite their legal right to stay.During that time, immigrants and Mexican Americans were rounded up and sent to Mexico, sometimes in public places and often without formal proceedings. Others, scared under the threat of violence, left voluntarily. -
Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950
The McCarran Internal Security Act, also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C.A. § 781 et seq.), was part of a legislative package that was designated as the Internal Security Act of 1950. Congress passed such statutes in response to the post-World War II Cold War during which many public officials perceived a threat of violent and forcible over-throw of the U.S. government by U.S. Communist groups that advocated this objective. -
Immigration and Nationality Act 1952
Otherwise known as the McCarran-Walter Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 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. -
Operation Wetback
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower launched Operation Wetback, a shameful initiative to remove (often violently) thousands of undocumented workers--mostly Mexican nationals. In what has been described as a "quasi-military operation", border patrol agents, along with state and local law enforcement methodically targeted Mexican-Americans. The result was widespread fear and abuse.
It is estimated that 4,800 people were apprehended on the first day of the military operation. -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed the way quotas were allocated by ending the National Origins Formula that had been in place in the United States since the Emergency Quota Act of 1921.
One of the main components aimed to abolish the national-origins quota. This meant that it eliminated national origin, race, and ancestry as basis for immigration.
It created a seven-category preference system, which gave priority to relatives of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents and to professionals and other individuals with specialized skills.
Immediate relatives and "special immigrants" were not subject to numerical restrictions. Some of the "special immigrants" include ministers, -
The United States Refugee Act of 1980
An Act to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to revise the procedures for the admission of refugees, to amend the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 to establish a more uniform basis for the provision of assistance to refugees. -
Immigration Act of 1990 national reform of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
After it became law, the United States would admit 700,000 new immigrants annually, up from 500,000 before the bill's passage. The new system continued to favor people with family members that already worked in the United States, but added 50,000 "diversity visas" for countries from which few were emigrating, as well as 40,000 permanent job-related workers and 65,000 temporary worker visas.[10] Additional provisions strengthened the U.S. Border Patrol -
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
This act states that immigrants unlawfully present in the United States for 180 days but less than 365 days must remain outside the United States for three years unless they obtain a pardon. If they are in the United States for 365 days or more, they must stay outside the United States for ten years unless they obtain a waiver. If they return to the United States without the pardon, they may not apply for a waiver for a period of ten years.Previously, immediate deportation was triggered only for -
Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona
On Sept. 23, the United States Supreme Court announced a surprise in one of its most controversial pending cases: the Court refused Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods’ request to defend the constitutionality of Article 28 of the Arizona Constitution, which requires official government actions to be in English. Ordinarily, a State’s Attorney General would defend a state law’s constitutionality, but not this time. Art. 28 will be defended by Arizonans for Official English, the citizens’ group. -
USA Patriot Act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act
USA Patriot Act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden the scope of aliens ineligible for admission or deportable due to terrorist activities. "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001" -
The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005
Requires all illegal aliens, before being deported, to pay a fine of $3,000 if they agree to leave voluntarily but do not adhere to the terms of their agreement. The grace period for voluntary departure is shortened to 60 days.
Requires DHS to conduct a study on the potential for border fencing on the US-Canada border.
Sets the minimum sentence for fraudulent documents at 10 years, fines, or both, with tougher sentencing in cases of aiding drug trafficking and terrorism. -
Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2010
The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (Arizona Senate Bill 1070) is a legislative act signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer that is widely viewed as the most stringent anti-illegal immigration measure passed in decades. The Act has received national and international attention and has spurred considerable controversy.
The Arizona Act directs law enforcement officers who possess “reasonable suspicion” that an individual is unlawfully present to question citizenship. -
Obama’s Immigration Executive Action
It would offer a legal reprieve to the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who've resided in the country for at least five years. It would expand the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed young immigrants, under 30 years old, who arrived as children to apply for a deportation deferral and who are now here legally.The action will not: Extend protections to hundreds of thousands of parents of young immigrants who participated in the DACA. -
Conflict over inter-racial marriage inthe U.S. Anti-miscegenation laws.The Supreme Court ruling of 1967 inLoving v. Virginia.
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturns Pace v. Alabama (1883), ruling in Loving v. Virginia that state bans on interracial marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.As Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for the Court:"There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification.
