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The first law to grant citizenship by naturalization. Allowed immigrants to become US citizens through a process.
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Any person that is a threat to the Us and involved with conflicts in Europe was deported.
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Haitian Revolution made congress ban immigration by free blacks to contain anti-slavery campaigners.
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Congress bans the importation of slaves.
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A new Law was created to confiscate land from Native Americans and forced removal west of Mississippi River.
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Cherokee Indians forced on thousand-mile march to the established Indian Territory. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees die on this "Trail of Tears."
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Potato crop fails in Ireland sparking the Potato Famine which kills one million and prompts almost 500,000 to immigrate to America over the next five years.
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The Mexican-American War ends: U.S. acquires additional territory and people under its jurisdiction.
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The California Gold Rush sparks first mass immigration from China.
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Slaves and free African Americans were not citizens of the US and were not entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship.
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Poland's religious and economic conditions prompt the immigration of approximately two million Poles by 1914.
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The Union Army permits black men to enlist as laborers, cooks, teamsters, and servants.
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President Abraham Lincoln's order freeing the slaves held in the confederate states.
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The 14th Amendment of the Constitution endows African Americans with citizenship.
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A clause in the 14th Amendment "excluding Indians not taxed" prevents Native-American men from receiving the right to vote.
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Japanese laborers arrive in Hawaii to work in sugar cane fields.
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The 15th Amendment of the Constitution provides African-American males with the right to vote.
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The Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" accommodations for African Americans and whites are Constitutional. This decision allows for legalized segregation.
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Congress establishes a civil government in Puerto Rico and the Jones Act grants U.S. citizenship to island inhabitants. U.S. citizens can travel freely between the mainland and the island without a passport.
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The Supreme Court rules in Ozawa v. United States that first-generation Japanese are ineligible for citizenship and cannot apply for naturalization.
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President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill granting Native Americans full citizenship.
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Congress allows for the importation of agricultural workers from within North, Central, and South America. The Bracero Program allows Mexican laborers to work in the U.S.
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The Magnuson Act of 1943 repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, establishes quotas for Chinese immigrants, and makes them eligible for U.S. citizenship.
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The Civil Rights Act ensures voting rights and prohibits housing discrimination.