Immigration

By justinevangerwen

  • The Contract Labor Law

    policy of encouraging immigration by supporting companies who would provide passage to their workers in exchange for labor.

  • Page Act

    The first restrictive federal immigration law and prohibited the entry of immigrants considered "undesirable."The law classified as "undesirable" any individual from Asia who was coming to America to be a forced laborer, any Asian woman who would engage in prostitution, and all people considered to be convicts in their own country.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    First federal immigration law suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years and barred Chinese in U.S. from citizenship. Also barred convicts, lunatics, and others unable to care for themselves from entering. Head tax placed on immigrants.

  • Immigration Act of 1882

    First general immigration act. There were two main components: 1. “head tax” that would be imposed upon certain immigrants entering the country. 2. Upon inquiry of the vessels transporting immigrants, immigration officials were given the authority to expel certain immigrants based on criteria laid out within the Act.

  • Alien Contract Labor Law

    Act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its Territories, and the District of Columbia.

  • Scott Act

    law that prohibited Chinese laborers abroad or who planned future travels from returning.

  • Bureau of immigration established

    The Bureau of Immigration was established under the Treasury Department to federally administer all immigration laws (except the Chinese Exclusion Act).

  • Geary Act

    extended the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 by adding onerous new requirements. The law required all Chinese residents of the United States to carry a resident permit, a sort of internal passport. Failure to carry the permit at all times was punishable by deportation or a year of hard labor. In addition, Chinese were not allowed to bear witness in court, and could not receive bail in habeas corpus proceedings.

  • Immigration Act of 1903

    The Immigration Act of 1903, also called the Anarchist Exclusion Act, was a law of the United States regulating immigration. It codified previous immigration law, and added four inadmissible classes: anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes.

  • Naturalization Act

    required immigrants to learn English in order to become naturalized citizens.

  • Immigration Act of 1907

    The Act was part of a series of reforms aimed at restricting the increasing number and groups of immigrants coming into the U.S. before and after World War I. The law introduced and reformed a number of restrictions on immigrants who could be admitted into the United States, most notably ones regarding disability and disease.

  • Immigration Act of 1917

    This act added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to “homosexuals”, “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, "criminals", “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate.

  • Immigration Act of 1918

    designed to remedy the defects in current legislation by defining anarchism broadly enough to cover all forms activity related to its advocacy, including membership in or affiliation with any organization or group that advocated opposition to all forms of organized government. The new legislation removed the provision in prior law that aliens who had resided in the United States for more than 5 years were not subject to deportation.

  • Emergency Quota Act

    restricted immigration into the United States. Although intended as temporary legislation, the Act "proved in the long run the most important turning-point in American immigration policy" because it added two new features to American immigration law: numerical limits on immigration from Europe and the use of a quota system for establishing those limits.

  • Immigration Act of 1924

    limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890, down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, according to the Census of 1890. It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, among them Jews who had migrated in large numbers since the 1890s to escape persecution in Polan

  • Nationality Act of 1940

    The law revised "the existing nationality laws of the U.S. into a more complete nationality code"; it defined those persons who were "eligible for citizenship through birth or naturalization" and clarified "the status of individuals and their children born or residing in the continental U.S., its territories, or abroad." The law furthermore defined who was not eligible for citizenship, and how citizenship could be lost or terminated.

  • Magnuson Act

    allowed Chinese immigration for the first time since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and permitted some Chinese immigrants already residing in the country to become naturalized citizens.

  • Fiancees Act of 1946

    Procedures were adopted to facilitate immigration of foreign-born wives, fiance(e)s, husbands, and children of U.S. armed forces personnel.

  • Displaced Persons Act

    The first U.S. policy was adopted for admitting persons fleeing persecution. It permitted 205,000 refugees to enter the United States over two years (later increased to 415,000).

  • Act on Alien Spouses and Children

    permit the admission of alien spouses and minor children of citizen members of the United States armed forces. The grounds for exclusion and deportation of subversives were expanded. All aliens were required to report their address annually.

  • Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

    liberalized immigration from Asia, but increased the power of the government to deport illegal immigrants suspected of Communist sympathies.

  • Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

    discontinued quotas based on national origin, while preference was given to those who have U.S. relatives. For the first time Mexican immigration was restricted.

  • Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act

    gave Cuban nationals who enter, or were already present in the United States, legal status.

  • Immigration Reform and Control Act

    granted a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants who had been in the United States before 1982 but made it a crime to hire an illegal immigrant.

  • Immigration Act of 1990

    increased the total immigration limit to 700,000 and increased visas by 40 percent. Family reunification was retained as the main immigration criterion, with significant increases in employment-related immigration.

  • Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act

    made drastic changes to asylum law, immigration detention, criminal-based immigration, and many forms of immigration relief.