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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and added the land we know as California, Nevada, Utah and most of Arizona. Not only did we gain land though, we also granted amnesty for all of the Mexican workers that occupied the lands at this time. The government wanted cheap labor to help build railroads and allowed over 55,000 Mexicans to be in the U.S. but never officially announced them as citizens.
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/immigrantsrights/a/amnesty_3.htm -
Supreme Court Rules that Congress Alone Can Regulate Immigration
The Constitution states that is the federal legislative branchs' duty to establish a uniform rule of Naturalization. In 1849, the Passenger Cases caused the Supreme Court to rule that states imposing taxes on immigrants usurped the Congressional power to regulate immigration.
http://www.americanbar.org/publications/insights_on_law_andsociety/14/spring-2014/who-is-responsible-for-u-s--immigration-policy-.html -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States. It also gave citizenship to former slaves, recently freed. The states are also mentioned and forced to have equal rights no matter if they are citizens or not.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html -
Henderson v. Mayor of New York
New York tried to pass a law requiring ships to post a bond for each passenger which would help lessen the number of immigrants wanting to move there. The Supreme Court ruled against the bonds stating that it was a violation of the Constitution. The "violation" was that it said the bonds undermined the power Congress had over immigration.
http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/546-henderson-v-mayor-of-the-city-of-new-york.html -
Anarchist Exclusion Act Passes
The Immigration Act of 1903, also known as the Anarchist Exclusion Act, gave the federal government more power over regulating immigration. Congress added prostitutes and anarchists to the list of inadmissable class of immigrants. They also codified immigration lawa and incresed the tax on immigrants entering the United States. They unfortunately excluded Canadians and Mexicans from the increase in tax though.
http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/586-immigration-act-of-1903.html -
The Mexican Revolution
Due to the Mexican Revolution, around one million immigrants migrated to the U.S. because of the war and chaos. There were very restrictive laws in place during this time but in 1917 a law passed making an $8 tax required upon entry. This forced several of these immigrants to enter illegally due to financial burdens.
http://15minutehistory.org/2013/09/04/mexican-migration-to-the-us/ -
Annual report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration
The report shows that almost one-half of the immigrants in the United States are from countries in the Western Hemisphere but Mexico is far in the lead with any other country. It also estimates around 1 million of the Mexicans here are illegal and have been smuggled across the border.
https://archive.org/stream/annualreportofco1927unit/annualreportofco1927unit_djvu.txt -
Bureau of Immigration Moved
The Bureau of Immigration had been a part of the Bureau of Customs since 1899 but was moved to the Bureau of Labor in 1937. The main reason for this move was due to the Chinese nationals that were arriving; they owned and operated trade houses, stores and restaurants in the country.
http://www.immigration.gov.ph/the-bureau/history -
Immigration Reform and Control Act
The Act put lots of immigration laws in place to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants. However, it also granted temporary resident status for people who applied within 18 months, established they had been here since January, 1982, and had not committed any crimes.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d099:SN01200:@@@L&summ2=m&%7CTOM:/bss/d099query.html -
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
The act was passed to help prevent the flow of illegal immigration. It added a lot more security to the borders and added more laws against smuggling immigrants. The act also allowed some Central Americans to become legal residents with no punishment at all.
http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/577-illegal-immigration-reform-and-immigrant-responsibility-act-of-1996.html -
Labor Union Urges for Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
The Labor Union generally did not side with illegal immigrants because they said it caused depression of wages. In 2000 they took a different approach encouraging illegal immigrants be granted citizenship.They claim it is to help the immigrants from being taken advantage of for cheap wages and give them more rights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/17/us/labor-urges-amnesty-for-illegal-immigrants.html -
Legal Immigration Family Equity Act
The Act allowed illegal immigrants to apply for a green card no matter how they entered, if they were working illegally or even if they hadn't maintained lawful status since entry. Immigrants could qualify if they were admissable to the United States, had a visa available, were currently a beneficiary of a qualifying immigrant petition and a couple other things.
http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/other-ways-get-green-card/green-card-through-legal-immigration-family-equity-life-act -
Judge Blocks Arizona Anti-Illegal Immigration Law
Parts of the Arizona Immigration law were blocked since it was stated there was a challenge brought against the law by the Obama administration. What was blocked was police officers being allowed to check immigration status while enforcing other laws.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/29arizona.html?_r=0 -
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
President Obama signed this policy allowing young people to qualify for deferred action. Some of the requirements in order to get this privilege included: being under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012; coming to the United States before your 16th birthday; continuously lived in the U.S. since June 15, 2007; entered without inspection before June 15, 2012 and other requirements.
http://www.dhs.gov/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals -
Supreme Court and the 2010 Arizona Immigration Law
The Supreme Court ruled against most of the law saying that police officers would check identification of immigrants while enforcing other laws. They stated this overstepped the states position on immigration and that it is the federal governments responsibility to handle immigration.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/06/the_supreme_court_s_arizona_immigration_ruling_and_the_imperial_presidency_.html -
President Obama Takes Executive Action
The President announced action will be taken against deporting illegal immigrants. Some of these actions included letting parents of U.S. citizens request deferred action if they have been here since January 1, 2010; expanding waivers of unlawful presence to spouses, sons and daughters of lawful permanent residents; modernizing visa programs and others as well.
http://www.uscis.gov/immigrationaction
