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Gold Rush in California
The Gold Rush brought in a lot of immigrants. The gold-seekers or 49ers were many different people, from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. The discovery of gold in California brought over 300,00 people into California to get some gold themselves. The Gold Rush eventually faded out in 1855. -
The People Vs. Hall
The California Supreme Court bars Chinese immigrants from testifying in any trail involving a white man. They felt that the Chinese were inferior and were not capable of progress. -
Burlingame Treaty is ratifed
The treaty pledges to China the right of unrestricted immigration of Chinese citizens to the United States. This was going to enable friendly relations between US and China and relieve some of the immigration restrictions. -
Japanese Immigration
In the fall of 1869, Japanese started to migrate into the United States. The first place they arrived was in California as political refugees. Due to this racial tensions began to grow with Asians and Californians. -
Naturalization Act
As the Naturalization Act passed, it limited American citizenship to "white persons and person of African descent." This ended up discriminating against the Asian immigrants that were not white or from African descent. -
Henderson vs. Mayor of New York
The Supreme Court ruled that only the federal government could dictate immigration. The states themselves could no longer have the power over the administration of immigration. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act stated that for ten years there was a legislation ban on Chinese migration. This was the first in American history of a serious exclusion of free immigration. -
Anti-Chinese Riot
In Seattle, a mob took the Chinese that lived there to ships that would transport them away. The next day 350 Chinese awaited a ship to take them to San Fransisco in six days. On the first ship out 200 went able to go, while 150 were stuck on the shore. As a result of the riot one person was killed and four were wounded. -
The Melting Pot
The Melting Pot was a play by Israel Zangwill that opened in New York City. The melting pot was a metaphor used in the 1780s meaning that the US would absorb the immigrants and turn them into Americans. This was the first time that the melting pot was used in the United States. The play showed how it was impossible for the new immigrants to keep their own way of life. -
The Triangle Factory Fire
The fire ended up killing 146 young immigrant working women and men. The fire was either due to a match or cigarette or possibly the engines in the sewing machines. From the poor treated the workers dealt with, having the doors locked, a lot of them were unable to escape. Some even knew of their dealh so they jumped off high levels of the building. It did not take long for all them to die, only about 18 minutes. -
Immigration Act
The immigration Act of 1917 made it a law for incoming immigrants to take a literacy test. It overrode the veto of President Woodrow Willson. The bill was trying to get rid of the "undesirables." People over the age of 16 had to prove that they knew how to read by reading 30-40 pages. -
Emergencey Quota Act
This act put a restriction on immigration in the United States. A quota was put in place of 350,000. This limited the number of people born in the same foergin countries to three percent. The limitation is part of the U.S census of 1910. This made it that only people from Northern Europe would get in because they were most similar to Americans. -
Repeal of Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed due to the fact that the Chinese helped America out against Japan in the war. This made Chinese immigration legal. Though this repeal did help Chinese immigration, there was still a limit of 105 Chinese immigrants allowed in one year at a time. -
The Immigration Act
The Immigration Act of 1965 removed the national origins quota system. It changed to allowing 270,000 immigrants in a single year and having 20,000 and not any more from one country. This created a system of preferences, with the highest priority given to family reunification. -
The Refugee Act
The Refugee Act of 1980 was an amendment of the Immigration Act of 1965. This was put into action due to the Vietnamese and Cuban refugee crisis. It was meant to create a procedure to provide opportunities to refugees. And that ten million permanent immigrants are permitted to legally admitted to the US. -
Immigration Act
The Immigration Act of 1990 sets an annual ceiling of 700,000 immigrants per year that was able to enter the US for the next three years. Also there was an annual ceiling of 675,000 per year for every year after. -
9/11
On November 11, 2001 two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center that caused the World Trade Center to collapse. 19 tourists from the Isreaei militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The result of this attack was that it increased the enforcement of immigration. -
USA Patriot Act
Congress considers the USA Patriot Act to restrict the flow of immigrants and potential terrorists into the U.S. The title of the act is a backronym that stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. -
287(g) Program
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and governor Janet Napolitano began to receive federal funds and authority for local law enforcement and for putting immigrant policies into action. Bush's administration funded the money to them. -
Proposition 200
Proposition 200 passes in Arizona that requires individuals to produce citizenship documents when voting or receiving government social services. The result is that it is a misdemeanor to fail to produce proof of citizenship. The people in opposition to this said that it was anti-immigrant.
