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The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence said "all men were created equal under God." -
The Naturalization Act of 1790
limited citizenship to free white people, which excluded all blacks, natives, Asians, and indentured servants -
1798 Alien and Sedition Acts
a series of xenophobic laws that made it easier to deport immigrants and made it difficult to vote -
The Louisiana Purchase
The United States purchased a large part of the continent, having its borders touch from the Pacific to the Atlantic. More space meant more people, giving more opportunities for immigrants to find a job and a place to live. -
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The Potato Famine
As millions were dying of starvation, a large wave of European, mainly Irish, immigrants came to America -
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The Civil War
Civil war, which was heavily race-based, slowed the immigration to the country, as it was entirely war-torn. -
The Fourteenth Amendment
This amendment allowed all people, regardless of race, citizenship as long as they were born in the United States -
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The Second Wave of Immigration
A wave of immigration from non-European, typically not white, countries came to America -
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The Chinese Exclusion Act
prohibited Chinese workers from coming to the US and cut out all immigration from China. If Chinese people left they could never go back. They also could not send for their families Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, but it took until 1946 that people from other Asian countries (Philippines and India) could be citizens -
The Assassination of President William McKinley
Was the trigger of the Anarchist Exclusion Act -
The Anarchist Exclusion Act
first exclusion act of certain beliefs after McKinley was assassinated by, even thought Czolgosz was not an immigrant -
The Gentlemen's Agreement Act of 1907
the US and Japan agreed that if the US stopped discriminating and segregating school, Japan would restrict emigration and banned Japanese laborers in the US from Hawaii, Mexico, and Canada -
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World War I
Many Europeans immigrated to at first neutral America to escape the war -
Required Literacy for Immigration
Congress made a literacy requirement for immigrants -
1924 National Origins Act
reduced the immigration quota from each European country to 2% of that country’s proportion of the US population in 1890. This favored Western and Northern Europeans and limited immigration of Eastern and Southern Europeans. It also kept Asian immigration to a minimum. But western hemisphere immigration wasn’t limited -
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The Great Depression
As the global economies crashed, many immigrants, typically Mexican, faced deportation to make more jobs available -
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Operation Wetback
US forced people of Mexican descent out of the country -
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World War II
Many refugees, a large amount of which were Jewish, immigrated to America to escape Nazi persecution if they could -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
the US began to forcefully displace and move thousands of Japanese people into camps, although 62% were citizens -
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The Cold War
This war with Russia solidified the United State's anti-communist beliefs, allowing a rise in immigration from communist countries. -
The Displaced Persons Act of 1948
allowed the admission of 400,000 people left homeless by WWII and Soviet Communism in Eastern Europe -
1951 Refugee Convention
defined refugee as a person who leaves their country because of persecution and made the government reconsider immigration policies -
1952 Immigration and Nationality Act
relaxed restrictions on Asian immigration -
Fidel Castro Comes to Power
Castro's communist rise to power in Cuba meant that there was a rise in Cuban immigrants escaping his rule by immigrating to America. The U.S. allowed more Cuban immigrants to enter than other ethnicities, in part to support their anti-communist agenda. -
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
prioritized family reunification and attracting skilled workers, it took off the qualifications of race -
The Refugee Act of 1980
allowed 50,000 immigrants into the country annually; it allowed the quota to go up in times of crisis -
The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
imposed penalties of employers that knowingly hired undocumented workers and provided a pathway to citizenship, it failed to slow undocumented immigration from Mexico and Central America -
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NATFA)
wanted to increase economic relations between Canada, US, and Mexico. As a result, it put Mexican farmers out of business so that they had to seek opportunities elsewhere and people were sent out of business -
Proposition 187
It was planning to deny heath care, welfare benefits, education, etc to illegal immigrants -
1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act
focused on limiting undocumented immigration. Deportations doubled as a result -
9/11
A terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers and killed around 3,000 Americans caused a major social shift towards anti-muslim beliefs -
The Secure Fence Act
This act built fences along the Mexican-American border, to stop illegal immigrants. It was unsuccessful.