Imgres

United States Immigration policies 1850-present

By carlos93212
  • Period: to

    United States Immigration Policies 1850-present

  • Dred Scott decision declared free Africans non-citizens.

  • Contract Labor Law allowed recruiting of foreign labor.

  • African Americans gained citizenship with 14th Amendment.

  • Henderson v. Mayor of New York decision declared all state laws governing immigration unconstitutional; Congress must regulate "foreign commerce." Charity workers, burdened with helping immigrants, petition Congress to exercise authority and regulate immi

  • The U.S. population is 50,155,783. More than 5.2 million immigrants enter the country between 1880 and 1890.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act. First federal immigration law suspended Chinese immigration for 10 years and barred Chinese in U.S. from citizenship. Also barred convicts, lunatics, and others unable to care for themselves from entering. Head tax placed on immigra

  • Contract Labor Law. Unlawful to import unskilled aliens from overseas as laborers. Regulations did not pertain to those crossing land borders.

  • For the first time since 1798, provisions are adopted for expulsion of aliens.

  • Jane Addams founds Hull-House on Chicago's Near West Side.

  • Foreign-born in US were 15% of population (14% in Vermont); more arriving from southern and eastern Europe ("new immigrants") than northern and western ("old immigrants"). Jacob Riis publishes "How the Other Half Lives."

  • Bureau of Immigration established under the Treasury Department. More classes of aliens restricted including those who were monetarily assisted by others for their passage. Steamship companies were ordered to return ineligible immigrants to countries of o

  • Ellis Island opened to screen immigrants entering on east coast. (Angel Island screened those on west coast.) Ellis Island officials reported that women traveling alone must be met by a man, or they were immediately deported.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act renewed indefinitely.

  • Anarchists, epileptics, polygamists, and beggars ruled inadmissible.

  • Construction of Angel Island Immigration Station began in the area known as China Cove. Surrounded by public controversy from its inception, the station was finally put into operation in 1910. Although it was billed as the "Ellis Island of the West", with

  • Procedural safeguards enacted for naturalization. Knowledge of English becomes a basic requirement.

  • Head tax is raised. People with physical or mental defects, tuberculosis, and children unaccompanied by a parent are added to the exclusion list. Japan agreed to limit emigrants to US in return for elimination of segregating Japanese students in San Franc

  • Dillingham Report from Congress assumed inferiority of "new immigrants" from southern and eastern Europe and suggested a literacy test to restrict their entry. (William P. Dillingham was a Senator from Vermont.)

  • Immigration Act provided for literacy tests for those over 16 and established an "Asiatic Barred Zone," which barred all immigrants from Asia.

  • Quota Act of 1921 limited immigrants to 3% of each nationality present in the US in 1910. This cut southern and eastern European immigrants to less than 1/4 of those in US before WW I. Asians still barred; no limits on western hemisphere. Non-quota catego

  • Japanese made ineligible for citizenship.

  • Quotas changed to 2% of each nationality based on numbers in US in 1890. Based on surnames (many anglicized at Ellis Island) and not the census figures, 82% of all immigrants allowed in the country came from western and northern Europe, 16% from southern

  • The annual quotas of the 1924 Act are made permanent.

  • Provided for finger printing and registering of all aliens.

  • In the name of unity among the Allies, the Chinese Exclusion Laws were repealed, and China's quota was set at a token 105 immigrants annually. Basis of the Bracero Program established with importation of agricultural workers from North, South, and Central

  • Procedures adopted to facilitate immigration of foreign-born wives, finace(e)s, husbands, and children of US armed forces personnel.

  • 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 acce

  • The grounds for exclusion and deportation are expanded. All aliens required to report their addresses annually.

  • 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 al

  • The 1948 refugee law expanded to admit 200,000 above the existing limit

  • 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 refu

  • Separate ceilings for Western and Eastern hemispheric immigration combined into a worldwide limit of 290,000.

  • The Refugee Act removes refugees as a preference category; reduces worldwide ceiling for immigration to 270,000.

  • Immigration Reform and Control Act provided for amnesty for many illegal aliens and sanctions for employers hiring illegals.

  • A bill gives permanent status to non-immigrant registered nurses who have lived in US for at least three years and met established certification standards.

  • 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%.

  • 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,