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1790
Congress passed a law defining who could become a citizen if a person was not born here: Citizenship was possible only for someone who was "a free white person". -
Period: to
1880 - 1920
These 40 years had some of the heaviest immigration rates in US history. 25 million immigrants arrived. Most came from SE Europe (parts of the world unfamiliar to Americans). -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Congress passed the first major law that barred entrance to specific groups because the California Gold Rush and railroad building had attracted many immigrants. Of the men who built the Central Pacific Railroad, the vast majority were Chinese. By the 1870's, Chinese workers made up almost half of the workforce in San Francisco. Congress passed the Chinese exclusion act which said no Chinese laborer could enter the US for 10 years. It was renewed several times and was in force until WW2. -
Quota Act of 1921
This act introduced a quota act by country. Each country's immigrants were limited to 2% of foreign born residents from that country listed in the US census of 1890. Immigration dropped sharply. -
Immigration Act of 1924
Congress took a more drastic step. This act introduced a quota system by country. This formula favored groups that had been in the US for a long time. -
1965 Immigration reform act
the next major policy shift was inspired largely by the civil rights movement and its ideal of equality and social justice. in 1965 congress passed the immigration reform act abolishing the quota system based on national origin. it was supposed to reunify families and giving priority to certain skills. this law set limits: 170k people from eastern hemisphere and 120k from western hemisphere. -
1986 immigration reform and control act
reagan's IRCA had a dual purpose. first, it was to slow immigration by publishing employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants. second, it was to offer a way for long term undocumented immigrants bringing in their relatives so others did not have much change to immigrate. -
immigration act of 1990
by '90, more than 80% of american immigrants came from Asia and Latin America. Congress wanted to prevent any one country from making up most of the immigrants to the Us. in order to accomplish this, it passed the Immigration act of '90, which said that no country could account for more than 7% of total immigrants. -
immigration reform act of 1996
in '96 concerns about the continuing problem of illegal immigration led congress to pass yet another law. it increased the border patrol staff and stiffened penalties for creating false citizenship papers or smuggling undocumented workers. -
2007
in late 2007, president George W bush committed himself to backing a bill to address all immigration issues. Bush's bill proposed to fill short term labor needs through a guest worker program and strengthened border control. Yet bush argued that his bill was also realistic because it did not propose to track down and deport millions of undocumented workers who were already here.
