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Citizenship has begun
The first Naturalization Act was passed to make any white males or females eligible for citizenship if they were a resident of the United States for at least 2 years. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American war and gave the United States California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. It also gave mexicans one year to chooses to be a citizen of the united states or of mexico. -
Dredd Scott V Sanford
Dredd Scott tried to sue for his freedom in a FReed state but the Supreme Court believed that a piece of property could not sue. Since his ancestry was foreign and the 14th Amendment was not implemented yet he was not a citizen and could not sue for his freedom. This ruling established that slaves and free African Americans were not citizens. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment allowed all people who were born in the United States to be considered a citizen including African Americans. -
The Naturalization Act of 1870
It allowed all alien African Americans and people of African descent to gain naturalization rights. This also excluded asains which denied them opportunities for citizenship. -
ELK V. WILKINS
John Elk was a native american denied the right to vote due to not gaining citizenship under the 14th Amendment. The supreme court ruled that all native americans were not citizens by being born in the united states -
The Dawes Alloment Act
This allowed the president to break up land to individually give out to native americans. All native Americans who accepted this also gained citizenship. -
Expatriation act of 1907
All women who married someone who was not a citizen were stripped of their citizenship. -
Alien Land Laws in California 1913
Most Western states had laws denying many Immigrants from gaining citizenship. Even if they owned land and property they were ineligible for citizenship. -
Jones-Shafroth Act
It made all Puerto Ricans citizens of the United states. -
Cable act of 1922
Congress gave all women who married a non-citizen their citizenship back. -
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
Bhagat Singh Thind was denied citizenship for being an Asian Indian even though he was racially classified as white. The Supreme Court said he would never be white in the common man's eyes. this decision led to many Asian Indians being denied citizenship. -
The Immigration Act of 1924
This set a national quota of 150,000 people who could immigrate to the United States per year. It also provided a visa to 2 percent of the immigrants who came to the United States. -
Indian citizenship act of 1924
All native Indians who were and are born in the United States are now considered citizens. The native Americans gained citizenship by birthright. -
Mexican Repatriation
Border patrol detained Mexicans and deported them no matter if they were a United States citizen or not. Almost 2 million Mexicans were deported back to Mexico -
Immigration and nationalzation act of 1952
It reinforced the quota for each country and how many people could immigrate a year. All of Asia was limited to 2000 people a year. It also removed all racial discrimination on citizenship and naturalization. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
Required employers to give the immigration status of their workers. They also could not hire immigrants knowingly -
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2023
This has not passed yet but was proposed. It allows citizenship for undocumented noncitizens by allowing them to apply for temporary legal status.