Legislation on Immigration
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The Immigration Act of 1875 was the first immigration law that excluded groups of people from the United States—and women were part of that exclusion. Commonly referred to as the Asian Exclusion Act, this legislation prohibited the importation of Chinese laborers who did not voluntarily consent to come to work in America and Chinese women for the purposes of prostitution: “Sec. 3. That the importation into the United States of women for the purposes of prostitution is hereby forbidden.”
The Chinese Exlusion Act was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration.
The Naturalization Act of 1906, creates the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization and places it under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department. The act also requires immigrants to learn English before they can become citizens.
The Immigration Act of 1907, broadens the categories of people banned from immigrating to the U.S. The list excludes “imbeciles,” “feeble-minded” people, those with physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working, tuberculosis victims, children who enter the U.S. without parents, and those who committed crimes of “moral turpitude.”
Immigration Act of 1917, also called Asiatic Barred Zone Act, further restricted immigration, particularly of people from a large swath of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The act also bars homosexuals, “idiots,” “feeble-minded persons,” "criminals," “insane persons,” alcoholics, and other categories. In addition, the act sets a literacy standard for immigrants age 16 and older. They must be able to read a 40-word selection in their native language.
The National Origins Act of 1924, reduces the number of immigrants entering the U.S. each year to 165,000 and the nationality quota set forth in the Quota Law of 1921 is cut to 2% of the population of that nationality based on the 1890 census. The quota system did not apply to immigrants from the western hemisphere.The U.S. Border Patrol is created.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, (the McCarran-Walter Act) consolidates earlier immigration legislation into one law and eliminates race as a basis of exclusion. However, race continues to be a factor because the quota system remains in place, except for immigrants from the western hemisphere. Immigration from any country is capped at 1/6th of 1% of the population of that nationality based on the 1920 census.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, or the Hart-Celler Act abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or residents of the U.S. Numerical restrictions on visas were set at 170,000 per year, not including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, nor "special immigrants" (including those born in "independent" nations in the Western hemisphere; former citizens; ministers; employees of the U.S. government abroad).
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) allows immigrants who had entered the U.S. before Jan. 1, 1982, to apply for legal status but required them to pay fines, fees, and back taxes. It also gives the same rights to immigrants who worked in agricultural jobs for 90 days before May 1982. About 3 million immigrants gained legal status through the law. The act also requires employers to verify work status of all new hires and fine those who hire undocumented workers.
The Refugee Act of 1980, defines refugees as a person who flees his or her country “on account of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion.” Refugees are considered a different category than immigrants. The president and Congress are granted the authority to establish an annual ceiling on the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. The act also lowers the annual limit of immigrants to 270,000, from 290,000.
The Immigration Act of 1990, was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on November 29, 1990. The Act increased total, overall immigration to allow 700,000 immigrants to come to the U.S. per year for the fiscal years 1992-1994, and 675,000 per year after that. It provided family-based immigration visas, created five distinct employment-based visas categorized by occupation, and began a diversity visa program that created a lottery to admit immigrants from "low admittance" countries–or countries where their citizenry was underrepresented in the United States. The modifications removed homosexuality as grounds for exclusion from immigration, and the law provided for exceptions to the English testing process required for naturalization set forth by the Naturalization Act of 1906.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, broadens the definition of “aggravated felony” and increases the number of crimes classified as such so immigrants could be deported for a wider range of crimes. The law is applied retroactively. The act also increased the number of Border Patrol agents and established an “expedited removal” procedure to deport immigrants without a formal hearing.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, sharply cuts legal permanent residents’ eligibility for many public-assistance benefits, including food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Medicaid.
The REAL ID Act of 2005, requires states to verify a person’s immigration status or citizenship before issuing licenses, expands restrictions on refugees requesting asylum, and limits the habeas corpus rights of immigrants.
Click on the title to read the text
The Immigration Act of 1875 was the first immigration law that excluded groups of people from the United States—and women were part of that exclusion. Commonly referred to as the Asian Exclusion Act, this legislation prohibited the importation of Chinese laborers who did not voluntarily consent to come to work in America and Chinese women for the purposes of prostitution: “Sec. 3. That the importation into the United States of women for the purposes of prostitution is hereby forbidden.”
The Chinese Exlusion Act was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration.
The Naturalization Act of 1906, creates the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization and places it under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department. The act also requires immigrants to learn English before they can become citizens.
The Immigration Act of 1907, broadens the categories of people banned from immigrating to the U.S. The list excludes “imbeciles,” “feeble-minded” people, those with physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working, tuberculosis victims, children who enter the U.S. without parents, and those who committed crimes of “moral turpitude.”
Immigration Act of 1917, also called Asiatic Barred Zone Act, further restricted immigration, particularly of people from a large swath of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The act also bars homosexuals, “idiots,” “feeble-minded persons,” "criminals," “insane persons,” alcoholics, and other categories. In addition, the act sets a literacy standard for immigrants age 16 and older. They must be able to read a 40-word selection in their native language.
The National Origins Act of 1924, reduces the number of immigrants entering the U.S. each year to 165,000 and the nationality quota set forth in the Quota Law of 1921 is cut to 2% of the population of that nationality based on the 1890 census. The quota system did not apply to immigrants from the western hemisphere.The U.S. Border Patrol is created.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, (the McCarran-Walter Act) consolidates earlier immigration legislation into one law and eliminates race as a basis of exclusion. However, race continues to be a factor because the quota system remains in place, except for immigrants from the western hemisphere. Immigration from any country is capped at 1/6th of 1% of the population of that nationality based on the 1920 census.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, or the Hart-Celler Act abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or residents of the U.S. Numerical restrictions on visas were set at 170,000 per year, not including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, nor "special immigrants" (including those born in "independent" nations in the Western hemisphere; former citizens; ministers; employees of the U.S. government abroad).
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) allows immigrants who had entered the U.S. before Jan. 1, 1982, to apply for legal status but required them to pay fines, fees, and back taxes. It also gives the same rights to immigrants who worked in agricultural jobs for 90 days before May 1982. About 3 million immigrants gained legal status through the law. The act also requires employers to verify work status of all new hires and fine those who hire undocumented workers.
The Refugee Act of 1980, defines refugees as a person who flees his or her country “on account of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion.” Refugees are considered a different category than immigrants. The president and Congress are granted the authority to establish an annual ceiling on the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. The act also lowers the annual limit of immigrants to 270,000, from 290,000.
The Immigration Act of 1990, was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on November 29, 1990. The Act increased total, overall immigration to allow 700,000 immigrants to come to the U.S. per year for the fiscal years 1992-1994, and 675,000 per year after that. It provided family-based immigration visas, created five distinct employment-based visas categorized by occupation, and began a diversity visa program that created a lottery to admit immigrants from "low admittance" countries–or countries where their citizenry was underrepresented in the United States. The modifications removed homosexuality as grounds for exclusion from immigration, and the law provided for exceptions to the English testing process required for naturalization set forth by the Naturalization Act of 1906.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, broadens the definition of “aggravated felony” and increases the number of crimes classified as such so immigrants could be deported for a wider range of crimes. The law is applied retroactively. The act also increased the number of Border Patrol agents and established an “expedited removal” procedure to deport immigrants without a formal hearing.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, sharply cuts legal permanent residents’ eligibility for many public-assistance benefits, including food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Medicaid.
The REAL ID Act of 2005, requires states to verify a person’s immigration status or citizenship before issuing licenses, expands restrictions on refugees requesting asylum, and limits the habeas corpus rights of immigrants.