Brief Timeline of U.S. Immigration History
1607-1732 All of the 13 colonies was shaped by those interactions as well as their particular climate, geography, and global politics at the time of their founding
1619-1808 Roughly 12 million people captured in Africa began the so-called "Middle Passage" to North America of whom 1.5 million died en route
1776-1783 American Revolution
1786 U.S. government established first reservation for American Indians and policy of dealing with individual tribes as independent nations
1788 U.S. Constitution ratified
1790 Federal government established two-year residence for naturalization
1798 Naturalization Act, passed as one of the Alien and Sedition Acts amid intense partisan politics, allowed president to deport dangerous foreigners and lengthens 14-year residence for naturalization
1802 After shift in political party of president, residence for naturalization shortened to five years
1808 Congress banned importation of slaves from Africa
1819 Congress established first reporting on immigration
1830 Removal Act passed by Congress, forced American Indians to settle in Indian Territories west of the Mississippi River
1820-1880 Rapid increase in immigration spurred by early industrial revolution in the U.S., crop failures in Germany and Ireland, political upheaval
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended Mexican War and extended U.S. citizenship to 80,000 Mexicans living in land annexed to the United States
1854 Know Nothing nativist political party sought restrictions on Catholic immigration
1861-1865 Civil War
1863-1869 Chinese laborers hired by the Central Pacific Railroad and Irish laborers hired by the Union Pacific Railroad complete the first transcontinental railroad
1870 Naturalization Act of 1870 extended citizenship to whites and African Americans, but not to Asians
1880-1920 Immigration continues to increase, particularly from Germany and eastern and southern Europe
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
1885 Alien Contract Labor Law prohibited bringing laborers to the U.S. except some skilled workers and domestic servants
1911 Dillingham Commission established to investigate immigration issued report stating that increased immigration from eastern and southern Europe threatened to subvert American society
1917-1918 U.S. participation in the Great War, later called World War I, slowed immigration from Europe dramatically
1900-1980 Black and white migrants from the South move to urban industrial centers in the North and West. They sought economic opportunity, and African-American migrants also left behind the legal system of Jim Crow segregation and discrimination
1924 Immigration and Nationalization Act for the first time placed numeric limits on immigration based on national origins of U.S. population in 1890. Also called the Reed-Johnson Act, it greatly reduced immigration from southern and eastern Europe and completely prohibited immigration from Asia
U.S. Border Patrol established to prevent Chinese immigrants from crossing the Mexican border
Oriental Exclusion Act
1940 Alien Registration Act required registration and fingerprints of all aliens over 14 years old
1941-1945 U.S. Participation in World War II
1942-1964 Bracero Program to fill labor shortage in agriculture brought in five million Mexican farm workers who were guaranteed basic human rights, including nondiscrimination, and 30 cents an hour wages
1942 Executive Order 9066 forced Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans (62% of the total) into interior internment camps
1980 Civil Liberties Act apologized on behalf of the United States government and authorized reparations of $20,00 each to surviving internees
1946 eased immigration for foreign-born wives and children of U.S. military personnel
1948 Displaced Persons Act permitted immigration of 205,000 European refugees, especially those fleeing Nazi persecution
1956-1979 Refugees fled to the United States from:
1956 Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet Union
1959 Cuban Revolution
1975 Fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War
1978 Islamic Revolution in Iran
1979 Fall of Communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
1986 Immigrant Control and Reform Act aimed to tighten border with Mexico, toughened criminal sanctions against employers hiring undocumented immigrants, denied undocumented immigrants welfare benefits, offered amnesty to any immigrant entering the U.S. before 1982
2001 Department of Homeland Security replaced Immigration and Naturalization Service, broaden rules on immigrants ineligible to enter the U.S. or deportable because of terrorist activities