History of U.S. Immigration
Policy
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| 1790 |
Naturalization
rule establishes a two-year residency requirement for immigrants
wanting to become U.S. citizens. |
| 1819 |
Ship
captains are required to keep and submit manifests of immigrants
entering the United States. |
| 1875 |
First
exclusion law, barring entrance to convicts and prostitutes. |
| 1882 |
Immigration
Act. Immigration from China is curtailed; ex-convicts, lunatics,
idiots, and those unable to take care of themselves are excluded.
A tax is levied on newly arriving immigrants. |
| 1891 |
Office
of Immigration created as part of the Treasury Department. |
| 1892 |
Ellis
Island opens. |
| 1903 |
Entrance
barred to political radicals, epileptics, professional beggars. |
| 1907 |
Entrance
barred also to feeble-minded, tuberculars, persons with physical
or mental defects, and persons under age 16 without parents. Tax
on new immigrants is increased. |
| 1910 |
Entrance
barred to criminals, paupers, diseased. |
| 1917 |
Immigrants
over 16 years old must pass literacy exam. |
| 1921 |
Immigration
Act. Annual immigration limited to 350 000. Quotas for each nationality
are introduced. |
| 1924 |
Immigration
Act limits immigration to 165 000 annually. |
| 1927 |
Annual
immigration ceiling is reduced to 150 000. The nationality quota
is revised to 2% of each nationality's representation in the 1920
census. This law remains in effect through 1965. |
| 1929 |
Immigration
ceiling of 150,000 is made permanent, with 70% of admissions slated
for those coming from northern and western Europe, while 30% are
reserved for those coming from southern and eastern Europe. |
| 1943 |
Chinese
exclusion laws repealed. |
| 1948 |
Displaced
Persons Act (D.Ps). Nation's first refugee legislation. |
| 1950 |
Entrance
barred to communists (Internal Security Act). |
| 1952 |
The
"McCarran-Walter Act" consolidates earlier immigration
laws and removes race as a basis for exclusion. It introduces an
ideological criterion for admission: immigrants and visitors to
the United States can now be denied entry on the basis of their
political ideology (e.g., if they are communists). Retains national
quotas and sets up separate categories for skilled workers, relatives
of citizens and resident aliens. |
| 1965 |
Immigration
and Nationality Act amended. National-origin quotas are eliminated. |
| 1980 |
Refugee
Act. Refugees fleeing communism and Middle Eastern countries are
no longer given preference. |
| 1986 |
Immigration
and Control Act. Amnesty granted to illegal immigrants residing
in the U.S. since 1982. Introduction of sanctions against employers
hiring undocumented workers. |
| 1990 |
Immigration
Act. Legal immigration quotas are expanded. |
| 1996 |
Immigration
Act. In an effort to curb illegal immigration, Congress votes to
double the U.S. Border Patrol and mandates the construction of fences
at the most heavily trafficked areas of the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Clinton signs welfare reform bill that cuts many social
programs for immigrants. |
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| Source: http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/statistics/legishist/index.htm |
