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Early Restrictions
Early in the nation's history, Congress declared a preference for immigrants from Europe. In 1790, it passes a law defining who could become a citizen if a person was not born here. Citizenship was possible only for someone who was a "free white person." This barred any African or Asian immigrant from becoming a citizen. After the Civil War, this law was revised to allow people born in Africa to become citizens, butAsian immigrants were still excluded from citizenship. -
Heavy Immigration Between 1880 and 1920
25 million immigrants arrived in this time period. Most came from the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe. Americans saw these new immigrants as very different from themselves. -
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act said that no Chinese laborer could enter the United State for 10 years. Renewed several times, the act was in force until World War II. In that conflict, China was an American ally and Congress repealed the law. -
Quota Act of 1921
Congress sets up quotas favoring immigrants from northwestern Europe. -
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924 introduced a quota system by country: Each country's immigrants were limited to 2% of foreign-born residents from that country listed in the U.S. Census of 1890. This formula favored groups that had been in the United States for a long time. -
Immigration Reform Act
The Immigration Reform Act throws out the national origins system; now preference is given first to reunifying families and second to people whose skills help the United States. -
Immigration Reform and Control Act
The Immigration Reform and Control Act penalizes employers fro knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants, but it gives amnesty to some undocumented immigrants, allowing them a path to eventually apply for citizenship. -
Immigration Act of 1990
Congress wanted to prevent any one country from making up most of the immigrants to the United States. In order to accomplish this, it passed the Immigration Act of 1990, which said that no country could account for more than 7% of total immigrants. The law also considered a person's education and skills. In addition, the 1990 law set up special categories for war refugees or close relatives of American citizens. -
Immigration Reform Act of 1996
A new law expands the U.S. Bordr Patrol and stiffens penalties for false papers or smuggling undocumented workers. -
Bush's Bill
George W Bush's bill proposed to fill short-term laor needs through a guest worker program and strengthened bortder control without proposing to track down and deport millions of undocumented workers who were already here.The bill also would have fined undocumented immigrants and required them to fulfill certain obligations before they could apply for citizenship called "a path to citizenship."
