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Naturalization Act of 1790
Limited naturalization to "free white persons" (naturalization is defined as giving people the rights and privileges of a citizen) -
Naturalization Act of 1795
Extended the Act of 1790 to include a residency requirement of five years -
Naturalization Act of 1798
Extended the residency requirement in the Act of 1795 to be 14 years -
Naturalization Law of 1802
Directed the clerk of the court to record the entry of all aliens into the United States. The clerk collected information including the applicant's name, birthplace, age, nation of allegiance, country of emigration, and place of intended settlement, and granted each applicant a certificate that could be exhibited to the court as evidence of time of arrival in the United States. This act also repealed the Naturalization Act of 1798. -
Naturalization Act of 1802 updated
Updated to extend citizenship automatically to alien wives of U.S. citizens -
Fourteenth Amendment
Granted citizenship to people born within the United States and subjected to its jurisdiction regardless of their parents' race, citizenship, or place of birth, but it excluded untaxed indians (those living on reservations) -
Naturalization Act of 1870
Extended the naturalization laws to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent" -
Page Act of 1875
Prohibited the entry of immigrants considered "undesirable" including: forced laborers from Asia, Asian females believed to be coming to work as prostitutes, and convicts from other countries -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Prohibited immigration of all Chinese laborers -
Scott Act
Expanded upon the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting reentry after leaving the US -
Chinese Exclusion Act Renewed
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was extended for another 10 years. Note: Day may be inaccurate. -
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
Granted citizenship to American-born children of Chinese parents -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1902
Made the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the renewal in 1892 indefinite law -
Naturalization Act of 1906
Required immigrants to learn English in order to become naturalized citizens -
Gentleman's Agreement of 1907
An informal agreement between the United States and the Empire of Japan whereby the U.S. would not impose restriction on Japanese immigration, and Japan would not allow further emigration to the U.S. The agreement was never ratified by Congress. The Immigration Act of 1924 ended it. -
Immigration Act of 1917
Added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to people from the Asiatic Barred Zone, “homosexuals”, “idiots”, “feeble-minded persons”, "criminals", “epileptics”, “insane persons”, alcoholics, “professional beggars”, all persons “mentally or physically defective”, polygamists, and anarchists. It also barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate. -
Immigration Restriction Act of 1921
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 -
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 and excluded immigration of Indians (from India), East Asians, and Middle Easterners. -
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (Snyder Act)
Granted full US citizenship to America's indigenous peoples (American Indians) -
Tydings–McDuffie Act
Provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States after a period of ten years. It also reclassified all Filipinos, including those who were living in the United States, as aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. A quota of 50 immigrants per year was established. -
Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935
Established a repatriation program for Filipinos living in the United States, by which they were provided free passage back to the Philippines -
Nationality Act of 1940
Granted citizenship to all those are born on US soil -
Period: to
Bracero Program
A series of laws and diplomatic agreements for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States. Note: The ending year is correct, however, the actual date is not. http://braceroarchive.org/ -
Magnuson Act
Repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1902 -
War Brides Act
Allowed the non-Asian spouses, natural children, and adopted children of United States military personnel to enter the U.S. after World War II. Expired December 1948. -
Luce-Celler Act of 1946
The act provided a quota of 100 Filipinos, and 100 Indians to immigrate into the United States per year. It also allowed Filipino Americans and Indian Americans to naturalize and become United States Citizens. -
UN Refugee Convention
Limited to protecting European refugees after World War II. Defined who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. Also sets out which people do not qualify as refugees, such as war criminals and provides for some visa-free travel for holders of travel documents issued under the convention. -
Immigration and Nationality Act
Prohibits racial and gender discrimination in naturalization -
Migration and Refugee Assistance Act
Authorized Congress to appropriate “such amounts as may be necessary from time to time” to provide assistance to refugees, particularly those fleeing from regions under the influence of the Soviet Union. By providing assistance to refugees, the U.S. hoped to “contribute to the defense [,] the security [and to] the foreign policy interests of the United States." -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Abolished the National Origins Formula that had been in place since the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 -
Refugee Act of 1980
Serves as an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act. It created a new definition of refugee, raised the limitation from 17,400 to 50,000 refugees admitted each year, established the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and established procedures on how to handle refugees by creating a uniform and effective resettlement and absorption policy. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
Required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants, legalized certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants, and legalized illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously with the penalty of a fine, back taxes due, and admission of guilt. About three million undocumented immigrants were granted legal status. -
American Homecoming Act
allowed children in Vietnam born of American fathers and their close relatives to immigrate to the United States -
Immigration Act of 1990
increased the limits on legal immigration to the United States, Revised all grounds for exclusion and deportation, authorized temporary protected status to aliens of designated countries, revised and established new nonimmigrant admission categories, revised and extended the Visa Waiver Pilot Program, revised naturalization authority and requirements, and removed homosexuality as grounds for exclusion from immigration -
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
Immigrants unlawfully present in the United States for 180 days but less than 365 days must remain outside the United States for three years unless they obtain a pardon. If they are in the United States for 365 days or more, they must stay outside the United States for ten years unless they obtain a waiver. If they return to the United States without the pardon or waiver, they may not apply for a waiver for a period of ten years. -
Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act
Provides various forms of immigration benefits and relief from deportation to certain Nicaraguans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, nationals of former Soviet bloc countries and their dependents who arrived to the US as asylees -
REAL ID Act
Established new federal standards for state-issued driver licenses and non-driver identification cards, changed visa limits for temporary workers, nurses, and Australian citizens, funded border security reports and pilot projects, introduced rules covering "delivery bonds", updated and tightened the laws on application for asylum and deportation of aliens for terrorist activity, waived laws that interfere with construction of physical barriers at the borders -
Secure Fence Act of 2006
Called for building 700 miles of phyical barriers along the Mexico-US border, authorized more vehicle barriers, checkpoints, and lighting and gave the Department of Homeland Security the authority to increase the use of advanced technology like cameras, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles to reinforce infrastructure at the border
