List of United States immigration legislation

There have been a number of Immigration Acts in the United States.

*The Naturalization Act of 1790 established the rules for naturalized citizenship, as per Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.
*The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first (and only) explicitly race-based immigration act.
*The [http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/history/ins_history.xml|Immigration Act of 1891] established a Commissioner of Immigration in the Treasury Department.
*The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established national quotas on immigration based on the number of foreign-born residents of each nationality who were living in the United States as of the 1910 census.
*The Immigration Act of 1924 aimed at freezing the current ethnic distribution in response to rising immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Asia.
*The National Origins Formula was established with the Immigration act of 1924. Total annual immigration was capped at 150,000. Immigrants fit into two categories: those from quota-nations and those from non-quota nations. Immigrant visas from quota-nations were restricted to the same ratio of residents from the country of origin out of 150,000 as the ratio of foreign-born nationals in the United States. The percentage out of 150,000 was the relative number of visas a particular nation received. Non-quota nations, notably those contiguous to the United States only had to prove an immigrant's residence in that country of origin for at least two years prior to emigration to the U.S. Laborers from Asiatic nations were excluded but exceptions existed for professionals, clergy and students to obtain visas.
*The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943 repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act and permitted Chinese nationals already in the country to become naturalized citizens.
*The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (or McCarran-Walter Act) somewhat liberalized immigration from Asia, but increased the power of the government to deport illegal immigrants suspected of Communist sympathies.
*Operation Wetback was a 1954 project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about 1.2 million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States, with a focus on Mexican nationals. Since the 1920s, the term "wetback" has been a slur referring to Mexicans in general.
*The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 discontinued quotas based on national origin, while preference given to those who have U.S. relatives. For the first time Mexican immigration was restricted.
*The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who had been in the United States before 1982 but made it a crime to hire an illegal immigrant.
*The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRaIRA) made drastic changes to asylum law, immigration detention, criminal-based immigration, and many forms of immigration relief.
*The Real ID Act of 2005 created more restrictions on political asylum, severely curtailed habeas corpus relief for immigrants, increased immigration enforcement mechanisms, altered judicial review, and imposed federal restrictions on the issuance of state driver's licenses to immigrants and others.

Proposed

enate

*Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (USBill|109|S.|1033, 2005)
*Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (USBill|109|S.|2611)
*Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (USBill|110|S.|1348)

House

*(Save America Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act) (2005)7 (December 2005)
*Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005

Other/unclassified

*Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007 (STRIVE Act) (2007)
*DREAM Act
*Guest worker program
*SKIL Bill (2006)
*REAL ID Act (2005)
*Secure Fence Act of 2006 (2006)

Related legislation and jurisprudence

There have been many other laws that have also affected immigration and naturalization:
* 1790 - Naturalization Act of 1790
* 1795 - Naturalization Act of 1795
* 1798 - Naturalization Act of 1798
* 1868 - Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
* 1870 - Naturalization Act of 1870
* 1875 - Page Act of 1875
* 1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act
* 1882 - 1882 Immigration Act
* 1885 - Act prohibiting "the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E7D7143FE533A2575AC1A9649C94649FD7CF NATIONAL CAPITAL TOPICS; THE FOREIGN CONTRACT LABOR BILL PASSED. THE SENATE MAKES SEVERAL AMENDMENTS TO THE HOUSE BILL--ONLY NINE VOTES AGAINST IT.] , "New York Times", February 19, 1885 ] .
* 1892 - Holy Trinity Church v. United States: Supreme Court judged that the 1885 Act on foreign labor did not apply itself to a Christian English preacher.
* 1892 - Geary Act (extended and strengthened the Chinese Exclusion Act)
* 1906 - Naturalization Act of 1906
* 1907 - Gentlemen's Agreement
* 1917 - Immigration Act of 1917 (Barred Zone Act)
* 1921 - Emergency Quota Act
* 1922 - Cable Act
* 1924 - Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)
* 1924 - Chung Fook v. White Supreme Court Act. Decision: A man did not have the automatic right to bring his wife to the United States if he married her after entering there; this is despite the exception's not being explicitly mentioned in the law.
* 1924 - National Origins Quota of 1924
* 1934 - Tydings-McDuffie Act ("Philippine Independence Act"), March 24, 1934, USPL|73|127, ch. 84, USStat|48|456
* 1942 - 1964 Bracero Program
* 1943 - Magnuson Act (repealed Chinese Exclusion Act)
* 1945 - United Nations Participation Act
* 1945 - War Brides Act
* 1946 - Luce-Celler Act of 1946 (permitted Indian Americans and Filipino Americans to naturalize)
* 1952 - Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act), USPL|82|414
* 1953 - Refugee Relief Act, USPL|83|203
* 1954 - Operation Wetback Pub. L. No. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359
* 1962 - Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, USPL|87|872
* 1965 - INS Act, USPL|89|236
* 1974 - Trade Act, USPL|93|618
* 1986 - Immigration Reform and Control Act, USPL|99|603
* 1990 - Immigration Act of 1990, USPL|101|649
* 1992 - Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992
* 1996 - Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
* 2005 - Real ID Act of 2005

See also

*Judicial aspects of race in the United States

References

Further reading

*Aristide Zolberg, "A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America", Harvard University Press 2006, ISBN 0674022181
*"U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: A Documentary History", hg. von Michael Robert Lemay, Elliott Robert Barkan, Greenwood Press 1999, ISBN 0313301565