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1776 America is Created
July - September 1776
July 1776 The Declaration of Independence was signed.
By September the words on the articles of the federation was first put as
"United States of America". -
Naturalization Act 1790 - 1798
March 26, 1790 Provided citizenship to only "free white men" after living in America for at least 2 years. Law excluded Woman, infants, free colored people, indentured servants and Asians.
January 9, 1795 law changed limit from 2 years to 5 years of living in America before becoming a citizen.
June 18, 1798 limit from 5 to 14 years and the Alien and sedition act making it more difficult for foreigners to get citizenship. -
Treaty of Ghent
Peace treaty between United States and United Kingdom. Immigration was halted prior to the treaty. Once the peace treaty was complete this started an influx of immigration from Ireland, Britain and Germany with over 5 million immigrants from 1815 to 1860. Many came for work and land for farming and many other reasons. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
A treaty that was signed after the United States won the war against Mexico. The surrender followed a treaty giving the United States 525,000 square miles included California, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and parts of Wyoming. This created citizenry for all inhabitants of the annexed land and were granted American citizenship. -
The 13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment was added to abolish slavery. It still did not grant free indentured servants American Citizenship.
This was added because the emancipation proclamation did not end slavery completely and it is why the 13th Amendment was needed.
This amendment did not include some involuntary indentured servants that were convicted by crimes or those that were serving the military; still did not protect discrimination against those that were of different ethnicity. -
14th Amendment
All citizens born in America are considered American Citizens and were granted citizenship rights. No state was able to deny citizenship rights. -
Naturalization Act 1870
This act extended the Naturalization Act of citizenship of "White Ethnicity" To "Black Ethnicity" regardless if they were born in America. This still denied the same equal rights to citizenship to other nonwhite ethnicities living in America. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
Federal Law to prevent the influx of Chinese immigration into California. This law was put in by President Chester Arthur.
This law was extended for another 10 years but finally allowed only students, teachers diplomats, and tourists. They were also required to carry identification on them as well. This law stayed indefinitely until it was repealed in 1943. After the repeal105 Chinese immigrants were allowed to immigrate annually. This created a huge discrimination on Asian Americans. -
UNITED STATES v. WONG KIM ARK
US supreme court case brought by Chinese-American born citizen. He was denied immigration back to the United States after visiting abroad even though he was born in America. Decided to take it to the US supreme court to argue his rights as a citizen. The supreme court ruled in Wong Kim Ark favor and the 14th Amendment helped his case. It cleared up the confusion of the citizens clause that stated all Chinese born were still subjects of the Emperor of China. -
The Expatriation Act of 1907
1907 - 1922
The Expatriation Act was a law to prevent woman not men from marrying noncitizens. Which means that all woman acquired their husband’s nationality upon marriage. So if they married a noncitizen they would lose their citizenship and risk deportation. If the husband became naturalized citizen she could become a citizen under his name. If the husband did not do that she would have to go through a lot of steps in order to become a citizen but would reflect as a true immigrant. -
Jones-Shafroth Act 1917
United States acquired Puerto Rico in 1898 during the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American war. Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 provided all citizens of Puerto Rico American Citizenship. This created citizens to be drafted into the military starting in WW1. -
Woman voting rights
Accomplishing this was no small task it took protests, written lectures and started a suffrage act that fought to stop discrimination against woman from voting rights. This was accomplished in 1920 and woman had the right to vote. -
Indian Citizenship Act 1924
This Act created Citizenship for all noncitizen natives born within the United States as American Citizens. At the time this provided approximately 300,000 Natives to gain citizenship. -
Alien Registration Act
Also known as the Smith Act was the anticommunist measures to the cold war. This act was to require all non-citizens to register to the Federal government for American citizenship. Non-citizens had to report every year and had to carry identification. This made it more fair for all non-citizens and was not limited to Chinese immigrated citizens. -
Immigration & Nationality Act
Any race and ethnicity now have an opportunity to become a citizen. Racial restrictions and gender discrimination were now eliminated. The policy of restricting immigrants from certain countries remained but overall improved the opportunity to becoming an American Citizen. Ethnicity could no longer bar from becoming a US citizen. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
United States outlaws discrimination against race, color, religion, sex, and any nationality. -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Instead of allowing a certain of limits to immigrations it is now based off previous country of origin. It also allows to be based off peoples skills and abilities or if they have family ties. This system is still being used today and got rid of country limits. Quota Act became abolished with this new Act. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act 1986
United Stated made it illegal to hire illegal immigrants. This created possible penalty to any business that violated the laws. This would only apply to those with more than 3 employees.