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1730 - An echo of the foreign immigration was the start of an internal migration into the Shenandoah mountains and valleys along the "Great Wagon Road"
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1790 - Congress passed the first naturalization law, granting citizenship to "free, white persons of good moral character" after residence in a state for one year and in the United States for two years (raised to five years in 1802)
1802 - Congress allowed "any court of record" to grant citizenship, starting the proliferation of 5000 naturalization courts with widely varied practices, until the federal Basic Naturalization Act of 1906
1815 - a third wave of immigration began with the end of the Napoleonic Wars, with 9 million arriving in the U.S. by 1875, including 3 million from Ireland, 2.5 million from Germany, 1.5 million from Britain
1855 - Aug. 1 Castle Garden became official entry point for steamship lines bringing passengers from Europe to New York; immigrants were required to bathe with soap
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1864 - Bureau of Immigration created to oversee importation of Chinese contract laborers
1875 - the Supreme Court declared the regulation of immigration to be a federal responsibility.
1880 - the 4th wave of immigration began that brought 21 million by 1920 from eastern and southern Europe, called the "New Immigration" because most were not Protestant, not English-speaking, and were poor
1882 "The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in order to prevent an excess of cheap labor in the U.S. and provided the deportation of those who were adjudged illegal residents. The act froze the population of the Chinese community leaving its sex ratio highly imbalanced. For more than half a century, the Chinese lived in an essentially bachelor society where old men always outnumbered the young. Three years before, the previous president had vetoed a similar law completely restricting all immigration of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. A year after the end of his term, the new president passed the Chinese Exclusion Act." (The Act was repealed in 1943)
1882 - Congress ordered the states to inspect and to tax each immigrant, 50 cents per head (raised to $2 in 1903 and $4 in 1907). However, failure of the states to act caused Congress to assume full authority over immigration
1891 - Congress created the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration in the Treasury Department tp oversee the new U.S. Immigrant Inspectors stationed at the principal ports of entry, especially Ellis Island that employed 119 of the entire corps of 180 inspectors
1892 "The additional immigration laws of 1875, 1882 and 1892 passed by Congress provides examinations of immigrants and the exclusion of convicts, polygamists, prostitutes, persons suffering from loathsome or contagious diseases, and persons liable to become public charges"
1892 - Jan. 2 Ellis Island opened to screen immigrants arriving in the port of New York until 1954
1897 - The Immigration Service was established in the Department of Justice
1907 "The U.S. and Japan sign the Gentleman's Agreement ensuring that the Japanese government will not issue passports to Japanese laborers intending to enter the U.S. Under the Gentleman's Agreement, the U.S. refrained from enacting any laws excluding Japanese immigrants until 1924"
1917 "The Immigration Act of 1917 not only expanded the classes of foreigners excluded from the U.S., but created the Asiatic Barred Zone, a geographical region covering most of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands from which no immigrants were to be admitted into the U.S. The law also imposed a literacy test and aliens who were unable to meet the minimum mental moral, physical, and economic standards were excluded, as were anarchists and other subversives, from the U.S."
1918 "Congress passes the Anarchist Act of 1918 which expands the provisions for the exclusion of subversive aliens"
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1924 "The quota system was changed in 1924 and was based on the desirability of various nationalities. For example, immigrants from northern and western Europe were consider much more desirable than those of southern and eastern Europe and more adapt to "fit in." Consequently, countries like Great Britain, Germany, and Ireland were given generous quotas, while nations like Russia, the source of most Jewish immigrants, and Italy were cut back. Almost all Asian were excluded from the U.S."
1924 - Congress created the U.S. Border Patrol within the Immigration Service.
1933 - Executive Order 6166 of June 10, 1933, combined the Immigration Service and the Naturalization Bureau into one agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service
1941 "Congress passes an act that refuses visas to foreigners whose presence in the U.S. might endanger public safety"
1945 "INS programs of the late 1940s and 1950s addressed conditions in post-war Europe. The War Brides Act of 1945 facilitated admission of the spouses and families of returning American soldiers. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 and Refugee Relief Act of 1953
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1946 "A federal law of 1946 authorizes the admission of persons of races indigenous to India to the U.S. under an annual quota"
1952 "The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 incorporates most of the existing laws relating to immigration including two major changes: the Asiatic Barred Zone which banned most Asian immigrants since 1917 was abolished and people from all nations are given the opportunity to enter the U.S."
1953 "The Refugee Act of 1953 makes an additional allocation of places for the victims of the war disaster"
1968 A law effective in 1968 limits 120,000 immigrants annually from the western hemisphere with visas on a first come first serve basis
1977 "An amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act abolishes separate quotas for the western and eastern hemispheres changing the quota to 290,000 immigrants worldwide annually with a maximum of 20,000 for any one country"
1980 - The Refugees Act of 1980 reduced the quota of refugees worldwide to 270,000 immigrants
1986 "The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 allows most illegal aliens who have reside in the U.S. continuously since January 1 of 1982 to apply for legal status and prohibits employers from hiring illegal aliens and mandates penalties for violations"
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1992 - surge of boat people from Haiti caused the federal government to establish refugee camps at Guantanomo Bay naval base
1996 - The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act made it easier to deport aliens without documentation - major provisions from FAIR - sponsored by Barbara Jordan
1997 "the number of impoverished people in the nation's immigrant-headed households nearly tripled from 2.7 million in 1979 to 7.7 million in 1997. During that same period, the number of poor households headed by immigrants increased by 123 percent while the number of immigrant households increased by 68 percent, according to the study. The share of immigrants living in poverty rose from 15.5 percent to 21.8 percent, the report notes, a change that some analysts say holds troubling implications for the nation's future. About 12 percent of the nation's native-born population lives in poverty, a figure that has hardly changed in 20 years." - from Post
1999 - The INS staff increased from 8,000 in the late 1970s to more than 30,000 in 36 INS districts at home and abroad - San Diego Border Patrol
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