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The first colony in Jamestown, Virginia was settled beginning a wave of British settlements.
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The first Alien Naturalization Act is created, providing rules for immigrants to gain citizenship.
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The Mexican-American war begins, later leading to an important change in the Mexican border.
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This treaty ended the war and gave the U.S. control of most of the current American Southwest which included Texas, Nevada, Arizona, parts of Utah, and California.
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This purchase gave the U.S. control of the southern parts of Arizona as well as New MExico. This further changed the Mexico border, forcing many Mexican citizens to be controlled by America.
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Congress gains more power over immigration in this act.
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The graet immigration station, Ellis Island, officially opens.
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The "Ellis Island of the West" opened in 1910, creating a flood of Chinese immigrants.
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Events of the Mexican Revolution drive many mexican immigrants across the border, creating the first major wave of Mexican immigration into the Southwest states.
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Congress passes the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924, officially establishing a U.S. Border Patrol that secures the border and establishes inspection stations.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt passes Executive Order 9066, ordering all people of Japenese decent living on the West Coast to be moved to internment camps. This created a lasting stigma of all immigrants that still contributes to attitudes toward immigration today.
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The Bracero Program allowed importing Mexican laborers for a temporary time period to America for labor work.
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The end of the Bracero Program comes, but immigratns still keep coming for labor opportunities.
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The major terrorist attacks in New York City prompted President Bush to increase contruction of Mexican/American barriers and made the entire country incredibly wary of all outsiders.
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Jan Brewer signs the infamous SB10-070 into law.