Immigration Policies Timeline

Immigration Policies Over the Years

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

The first immigrants came to the United States voluntarily from Europe during the Colonial Period.

In the 19th Century, a large wave of Europeans immigrated to the US. In 2017 there were 12.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

1838

The Congressional Select Committee in July 1838 reported that the immigration rates were a threat to the “peace and tranquility of our citizens”

1849

After the Mexican War in 1849, the US gained land that includes California, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada. Mexicans had a choice to stay or leave. Most stayed because there were no border laws.

1875

In 1875, Congress passed an exclusion law banning prostitutes and convicts from entering the United States ending a more open immigration policy.

1882

In 1882, the first of three Chinese Exclusion Acts was passed, banning more Chinese immigration.

In 1943, China and the US became allies during World War II and the exclusion laws were repealed.

1891

The 1891 Act barred people having any contagious disease or history of crime.

1838-1891

1860-1915

A wave of European immigrants from Russia, Austria and Italy. A large portion of this new group of people were Jewish.

“The History of Immigration Policies in the U.S.” NETWORK Lobby, networklobby.org/historyimmigration/., “Record 44.5 Million Immigrants in 2017.” CIS.org, cis.org/Report/Record-445-Million-Immigrants-2017.

immigrants traveling to the usa in the nineteenth century

immigrant jobs in the united states

NV

CO

HI

FL

SC

NC

UT

MN

IL

NH

MA

AK

DC

WA

ID

OR

CA

NM

WI

KS

OK

AL

IN

GA

MS

LA

TN

ME

MI

OH

MO

PA

NY

SD

CT

VT

VA

KY

Nurses

ND

NH

Butchers

NE

IO

Personal Care Aids

WY

Packaging machine operators

AR

Software Developers

DE

Truck Drivers

MT

Grounds workers

AZ

Waiters

WV

Janitors

Agricultural workers Cooks Construction workers College teachers Home Health Aids Cashiers

NJ

MD

“The History of Immigration Policies in the U.S.” NETWORK Lobby, networklobby.org/historyimmigration/., “Record 44.5 Million Immigrants in 2017.” CIS.org, cis.org/Report/Record-445-Million-Immigrants-2017.

Housekeepers

TX

In 2017, these were the most common jobs in each state for undocumented immigrants in the United States.

1 State

1903

In 1903, people in the US were fearful of European radicals entering the country and so the government added anarchists and subversives to the 1891 Act.

1917

In 1917, under Wilson’s administration, Congress passed the first comprehensive immigration act which included a literacy test requirement.

1924

1930

In 1924, the National Origins Act was passed putting a quota system on the number of immigrants who entered the United States. The law effectively stopped anymore large flows of European immigration.

In 1930, the US had suffered the Great Depression. They began their first campaign against Mexican Immigration.

1900-1930

Mexican immigration to the US rose as cheap labor was needed.

They were recruited for agricultural work.

1942

In 1942, the “Bracero� program was created. Temporary workers were brought in from Mexico, Barbados, the Bahamas, Canada and Jamaica to work in agriculture.

1965

The 1965 Act was a system for allowing immigrants into the country based on family ties and special skills called immigration and Nationality Act. Large masses of immigrants from Asian and Hispanic countries rose dramatically.

1980

Before 1980, immigrants claiming refugee status were brought into the US legally. In 1975, Southeast Asians were admitted after the Vietnam War.

1994

In 1994, California passed Proposition 187 which banned undocumented children from attending public schools and denied them public health services.

1996

In September 1996, Clinton passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996. The 1996 Welfare Bill put up barriers to undocumented immigrants from receiving any public benefits and any legal immigrant from receiving food stamps.

1903-1996

migrant mother, dorothea lange, 1936

September 11, 2001 A plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.

Thousands were killed in the terrorist attack in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

September 11th, 2001

2002

In 2002, Border Security and Visa Reform Act passed which created a new verification methods of documents when traveling.

2006

In 2006, a bill was passed to allow construction of a fence along the US-Mexico border.

2012

In 2012, Obama passed a law that allowed young adults (ages 15 to 30) brought to the US illegally as children could apply for temporary deportation relief and a two-year work permit.

2014

In 2014, Obama passed another law that unauthorized immigrant parents who have lived in the US at least 5 years with children born in the US could apply for deportation relief and a three-year work permit.

2017

December 2017, Trump issued a travel ban which prevented travel into the country from eight different countries. It prohibited visas for citizens from six countries; Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

president donald trump; 45th president of the usa

2017

March 2017, a Trump executive order banned refugees for 120 days unless they were already scheduled for travel.

2018

January 2018, Trump released an immigration that would offer a 12 year path to citizenship for 1.8 million immigrants who arrived to U.S. Illegally as children. It would replace Obama’s DACA program.

2018

August 2018, a federal judge ruled the Trump administration must fully restore DACA.

2001-2017

us-mexico border built in 2006.

what’s next?

BREAKING

NEWS President Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship:

The principle that every child born on US soil is automatically a native-born citizen, regardless of the immigration status of the parents.

With a stroke of the pen.

Present