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The Naturalization Act of 1790
This article of legislation allowed an individual to apply for citizenship if they were a free white person, being of good character, and living in the United States for two years. Upon receiving the courts approval they took an oath of allegiance which was recorded. The individual's citizenship was also extended to any children under the age of 21, regardless of their birthplace. If the applicant had never been a U.S. resident the application was disregarded.
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The Naturalization Act of 1798:Considered one of the Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by Congress in 1798 in preparation for an anticipated war with France. The Naturalization Act increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years, required aliens to declare their intent to acquire citizenship five years before it could be granted, and rendered people from enemy nations ineligible for naturalization.
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efferson Administration revises the Naturalization Act of 1798
The Jefferson Administration revises the Naturalization Act of 1798 by reducing the residency requirement from 14 to five years. In addition, the new law required that prospective citizens give three years’ notice of intent to renounce previous citizenship, swear or affirm support of the Constitution, renounce all titles of nobility, and demonstrate themselves to be of “ http://northamericanimmigration.org/204-naturalization-act-united-states-1802.html. -
Manifest of Immigrants Act
Congress passed on March 2, 1819, “an Act regulating passenger-ships and vessels.” It specified a limit of two passengers per every five tons of ship burden and for all ships departing the United States, at least 60 gallons of water, 100 pounds of bread, 100 pounds of salted provisions, and one gallon of vinegar for every passenger -
New Wave of Immigrants Arrive between 1841-1850
1,713,251 immigrants arrive in this country from 1841 to 1850 due to crop failures in Germany, social turbulence triggered by the rapid industrialization of European society, political unrest in Europe, and the Irish Potato Famine.
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Homestead Act
The requirement that the land be farmed for five years was the amount of time required to become a citizen, and because it began the assimilation of immigrants into American law.The lure of free land prompted millions of Europeans to immigrate to the United States in the years following the Civil War. Some left their homelands because of crop failures and economic depression. Others sought political and religious freedom, or to escape constant warfare. They came from Germany and Czechoslovakia, -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The California gold rush spurs immigration from China and extensive internal migration. 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to limit the immigration of a particular ethnicity. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. placed new requirements on Chinese who had already entered the country. If they left the United States, they had to obtain certifications to re-enter. Congress, moreover, refused State and Federal courts the
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Alien Contract Labor Law
Forbade American individuals or organizations from engaging in labor contracts with individuals prior to their immigration to the United States, and forbade ship captains from transporting immigrants under labor contracts.
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Anarchist Exclusion Act
It codified previous immigration law, and added four inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes. It also allowed for the deportation within two years of anyone unlawfully in the country and raised the head tax on immigrants to the United States to two dollars .
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Labor Appropriation Act
.Congress passed the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924, officially establishing the U.S. Border Patrol for the purpose of securing the borders between inspection stations. Liquor smuggling was a major concern because it too often accompanied alien smuggling. The majority of the Border Patrol was assigned to the Canadian border. Smuggling was commonplace along the Mexican border also. Whiskey bootleggers avoided the bridges and slipped their forbidden cargo across the Rio Grande by way of pack mule -
Tydings-McDuffe Act
The Tydings-McDuffe Act grants the Philippines independence from the United States on July 4, 1946, but strips Filipinos of US citizenship and severely restricts Filipino immigration to the United States. -
Alien Registration Act The Smith Act
requires all alien residents of the United States to register with the government and criminalizes membership in or association with any group that advocates the overthrow of the government by force or violence. The Smith Act will be used to jail or deport hundreds of American Communists in the early years of the Cold War.
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/smithactof1940.html. -
Nationality Act of 1940
Nationality Act of 1940requires that resident aliens register annually at post offices and keep the government apprised of any address changes. 91,858 Japanese aliens registered.
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Displaced Persons Act
In the wake of revelations of the human-rights horrors of the Nazi holocaust, Congress passes the Displaced Persons Act, for the first time creating a special allowance for refugees of totalitarian regimes to enter the country.
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Immigration Act of 1990
It increased total, overall immigration to allow 700,000 immigrants to come to the U.S. per year for the fiscal years ’92-’94, and 675,000 per year after that.It provided family based immigration visa, created five distinct employment based visas, categorized by occupation, as well as the diversity visa program which created a lottery to admit immigrants from “low admittance” countries or countries where their citizenry was underrepresented in the U.S.
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Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
Congress rewrote provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that pertain to the circumstances under which certain aliens subject to expulsion from the United States may become legal residents. How aliens are affected by these statutory changes is being played out most vividly in the cases of Central Americans who first came to seek asylum the United States in the 1980s. As many as 300,000 Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans are potentially
affected by these revisions." -
USA PATRIOT Act
Broadens the scope of aliens ineligible for admission or deportable due to terrorist activities to include an alien who: (1) is a representative of a political, social, or similar group whose political endorsement of terrorist acts undermines U.S. antiterrorist efforts; (2) has used a position of prominence to endorse terrorist activity, or to persuade others to support such activity in a way that undermines U.S. antiterrorist efforts
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Arizona Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act: House Bill 2162,
Prohibits state and local law enforcement from restricting the enforcement of federal immigration laws; equires law enforcement, in making a lawful stop, detention, or arrest for another law, to make a reasonable attempt to determine the person's immigration status where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is not lawfully present in the country;creates a new misdemeanor offense for the willful failure to complete or carry an immigrant registration document under certain circumstances;
