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Mexican American War
When the United States won the Mexican-American War the people in the territories granted to the United States had a year to decide if they were going to keep Mexican citizenship or gain American citizenship. This caused multitudes of immigrants into the United States almost by force -
Chinese Arrival for Gold Rush
The Gold Rush in California caused a lot of immigration from China. Americans used the immigration to create a Foreign Miner's Tax which mainly targeted increasing taxes on Chinese miners. -
Irish Potato Famine
The potato famine in Ireland caused over 1.5 million immigrants to come to the United States. This large flux of people comes as a shock to the citizens of the United States. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
Chinese Exclusion Act: Bans all Chinese immigrants from entering the United States unless they already have family within the United State's borders -
Ellis Island is Opened for Immigrants
Ellis Island is opened in New York harbour and will act as an open door for immigrants for the next few generations. -
President McKinley Assassinated
President McKinley was assassinated by a Polish anarchist. This caused the Anarchist Exclusion Act to be passed. The Anarchist Exclusion Act allowed the United States to deny immigrants citizenship based on their politcal views. -
Expatriation Act
The Expatriation Act would take away citizenship to any woman who married a foreign immigrant. -
The Quotia Act
The Quotia Act limited the amount of immigration from European countries to 3% of the current population of Europeans in the United States. -
Alien Registration Act
This act requires all immigrants over the age of 14 to be fingerprinted and registered to the United States databases -
Executive Order 9066
The Executive Order 9066 is the order that put all Japanese Americans into the internment camps during WWII. -
Displaced Persons Act
The Displaced Persons Act allows Europeans to immigrate into the United States if they were forced to move or leave their home country during WWII, despite the immigration cap. -
Operation Wetback
The return of soldiers after WWII comes into full effect and there is an overflow of labour force and Mexican immigrants take the blame. Operation Wetback gathered up many undocumented Mexican immigrants and deported them. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
The Immigration and Nationality Act changed the way immigration policy worked within the United States. Instead of trying to only allow the elite into the United States the Immigration and Nationality Act changes the policy to be based on service employment and family related ties. -
Refugee Act
The Refugee Act allows people fleeing from persecution in their country to have asylum in the United States. However, only refugees fleeing from persecution from counties that the United States does not ally with are allowed into the United States. -
Immigration Act of 1990
The Immigration Act of 1990 raised the yearly cap on immigration to 700,000 people. The act also made it easier for the rich to gain citizenship in the United States by allowing the rich to invest in rural or urban areas in exchanged for citizenship.