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Displaced Persons Act
Displaced Persons Act allowed 205,000 refugees over two years; gave priority to Baltic States refugees; admitted as quota immigrants. Technical provisions discriminated against Catholics and Jews; those were dropped in 1953, and 205,000 refugees were accepted as non-quota immigrants. -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
Immigration and Nationality Act eliminated race as a bar to immigration or citizenship. Japan's quota was set at 185 annually. China's stayed at 105; other Asian countries were given 100 a piece. Northern and western Europe's quota was placed at 85% of all immigrants. Tighter restrictions were placed on immigrants coming from British colonies in order to stem the tide of black West Indians entering under Britain's generous quota. Non-quota class enlarged to include husbands of American women. -
Hart-Celler Act
Hart-Celler Act abolished national origins quotas, establishing separate ceilings for the eastern (170,000) and western (120,000) hemispheres (combined in 1978). Categories of preference based on family ties, critical skills, artistic excellence, and refugee status. -
Eastern and Western Hemispheric immigration combined
Separate ceilings for Western and Eastern hemispheric immigration combined into a worldwide limit of 290,000. -
Refugee Act of 1980
The Refugee Act removes refugees as a preference category; reduces worldwide ceiling for immigration to 270,000. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
Immigration Reform and Control Act provided for amnesty for many illegal aliens and sanctions for employers hiring illegals. -
Immigration Act of 1990
Immigration Act of 1990 limited unskilled workers to 10,000/year; skilled labor requirements and immediate family reunification major goals. Continued to promote nuclear family model. Foreign-born in US was 7%. -
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
This act states that 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, they may not apply for a waiver for a period of ten years. -
USA Patriot Act of 2001
USA Patriot Act amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to broaden the scope of aliens ineligible for admission or deportable due to terrorist activities to include an alien who: (1) is a representative of a political, social, or similar group whose political endorsement of terrorist acts undermines U.S. antiterrorist efforts; (2) has used a position of prominence to endorse terrorist activity, or to persuade others to support such activity in a way that undermines U.S. antiterrorist efforts -
Comprehensive Immigration Reform of 2013
• The U.S. Congress apparently didn’t bother to actually read a rider that was sneaked into a long and particularly tedious bill commemorating the heroic Midwestern river dredging done by the Army Corps of Engineers. • Many of the most anti-immigration reform congressmen were apparently suffering from a particularly noxious strain of the flu• The bill passed both houses of Congress before anyone noticed