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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
This treary was the peace treaty signed in Guadalupe Hidalgo between the U.S. and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War. It gave the United States the Rio Grande boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California, and a large area comprising New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of relocating to Mexico or receiving American citizenship with full civil rights. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time. -
Immigration Act of 1882
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. -
Immigration Act of 1917
Under this act, all potential immigrants would have to pass a literacy test and pay a head tax. At the request of growers in the southwest who depended on farm labor from Mexico, the Secretary of Labor waived those requirements for Mexican immigrants -
Emergency Quota Act
The Emergency Quota Act restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country annually to 3% of the number of residents from that same country living in the United States as of the U.S. Census of 1910. Based on that formula, the number of new immigrants admitted fell from 805,228 in 1920 to 309,556 in 1921-22. -
Bracero Program
Under this arrangement, millions of Mexican laborers were contracted to complete agricultural work in the United States. While under contract they were given housing and received a minimum wage. The program was intended to provide the United States with temporary workers while many working-aged men were away at war. In order to ensure that braceros did not stay in the United States, their wives and families were not allowed to accompany them in the U.S. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
restricted immigration into the U.S. -
Operation Wetback
In response to the growing number of Mexicans entering illegally, the United States government implemented Operation Wetback in 1954. Under the direction of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Border Patrol began deporting Mexicans who were in the United States illegally, and up to one million Mexicans were deported. -
Border Industrialization Program
The creation of this new agreement that allowed the construction of foreign-owned factories in northern Mexico. The factories provided Mexico with a way to increase its manufactured exports to the United States, and in return, the United States received tax benefits for placing its factories within Mexico. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act
Under this act, all undocumented migrants living in the United States as of January 1, 1982, as well as those who had labored in the seasonal agriculture work for at least ninety days during the previous years were granted legal residence. -
Secure Fence Act
The act provided for the construction of 700 miles (1,100 km) of high-security fencing. -
Economic Crisis of 2008
The economic crisis had led to a decline of work opportunities in the U.S., meaning that many immigrants who came to the U.S. for work can’t find any. Access to social security, healthcare and education has also become more difficult. -
Arizona SB 1070
The Arizona Act additionally made it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying the required documents, required that state law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual's immigration status during a "lawful stop, detention or arrest", or during a "lawful contact" not specific to any activity when there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal immigrant. -
2013 Border Report
The Government Accountability Office released a report stating that the United States Border Patrol only intercepts sixty one percent of individuals illegally crossing the border in 2011, which translated to 208,813 individuals not being apprehended. 85,827 of the 208,813 would go on to illegally enter the United States, while the rest returned into Mexico. The report also showed that the number of illegal border crossings have dropped. -
Immigration Act of 1903
The 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.