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In 1790, it 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."
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One of the most heaviest periods in American history came between 1880 and 1920 when some 25 million immigrants arrived. Most came from the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe--parts of the world that were unfamiliar to many Americans. They saw these new immigrants as very different from themselves.
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It said that no chinese laborer could enter the United States for 10 years. (Chinese professionals were still allowed to immigrate.) Renewed several times, the act was in force until World War II. In that conflict, Chinese was an American ally and Congress repealed the law.
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Congress sets up quota favoring immigrants from northeastern Europe.
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The Immigration Act of 1924 introduced a quota system by country: Each country's immigrants were limited to two percent of foreign-born residents from that country that listed in the U.S. Census of 1890.
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This act was inspired largely by the civil rights movement and its ideal of equality ans social justice. in 1965 Congress passed the Immigration Reform Act, abolishing the quota system based on national origin. When he signed the reform bill, President Lyndon B. Johnson referred to the old system as "un-American."
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President Ronald reagan's Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) had a dual purpose. First, Reagan wanted to slow illgal immigration by punishing employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants. Second, he wanted to offer a way for long-term, undocumented immigrants to become legal. If they could show they entered the U.S. befor January 1982 and lived here continuously, they could apply for amnesty. Eligible workers could be granted temporary and then permanent residency.
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By 1990, more than 80% of American immigration came from Asia and Latin America. Congress wanted to prevent any one country from making up most of the immigrants to the U.S. In order to accomplish this, it passed the Immigration Act of 1990, which said that no country could account for more than 7% of total immigrants. The law also considered a person's education and skills. In addition, the 1990 law set up special categories for war refugees or close relatives of African Americans.
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In 1996, concerns about the continuing problem of illegal immigration led Congress to pass yet another immigration law. It increased the border patrol staff and stiffened penalties for creating false citizenship papers or smuggling undocumented workers.
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Late in his presidency, in June 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.
