Immigration History

Fifth Wave 1965-2003

Immigration from CIS Snapshot
Chinese woman in Chinatown
1965 "In 1965 amendments to the 1952 immigration law, Congress replaced the national origins system with a preference system designed to reunite immigrant families and attract skilled immigrants to the United States. This change to national policy responded to changes in the sources of immigration since 1924. The majority of applicants for immigration visas now came from Asia and Central and South America rather than Europe. The preference system continued to limit the number of immigration visas available each year, however, and Congress still responded to refugees with special legislation, as it did for Indochinese refugees in the 1970s. Not until the Refugee Act of 1980 did the United States have a general policy governing the admission of refugees." (1) The 1965 law established an annual limitation of 170,000 visas for immigrants from the eastern hemisphere.

1965 The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 had immediate effects, producing the Fifth Wave of immigration. The largest number in this wave were the 4.3 million from Mexico. Within 5 years, Asian immigration would more than quadruple. This trend was magnified even further by the surge in refugees from the war in South East Asia. Almost half of the 8 million immigrants would come from Asia. By 1968, the term "Asian American" came into general use, and the population of Chinatown in San Francisco expanded with recent arrivals, many in families from urban centers, according to the Becoming American by Bill Moyers

1968 A law effective in 1968 limited 120,000 immigrants annually from the western hemisphere with visas on a first come, first serve basis.

1975 An amendment to the 1965 Voting Rights Act mandated bilingual ballots in precincts with more than 5% non-English-speaking voters. In the 1980s, a conservative backlash caused 10 states to pass English Only laws.

1975 The most intensive refugee resettlement campaign in American history took place in April and May when the U. S. military moved 120,000 Vietnamese and 5,500 Laotians and Cambodians to 4 military bases in the United States.

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." (2)

1980 The Refugees Act of 1980 reduced the quota of refugees worldwide to 270,000 immigrants.

Haitians in hanger 1992
Guantanamo refugees from CNN
Korean-Americans from CAPAA
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" (2)

1990 The Immigration Act of 1990 set an annual maximum of 700,000 immigrants allowed to enter the U.S. for the next three years and an annual maximum of 675,000 per year for every year thereafter. "The Immigration Act of 1990 increased the overall ceiling on family-based immigration to 480,000 from 216,000 and, for the first time, included the spouses, minor children and parents of citizens under that ceiling. However, because admissions of spouses, minor children and parents of citizens remained unlimited under the 1990 Act, the act required that a minimum of 226,000 visas be reserved for the family-preference categories. This meant that the ceiling of 480,000 would be breached as soon as admissions of spouses, minor children and parents of citizens surpassed 254,000, which happened in 1993. Both the pre-1990 Act preference system and the 1990 Act system for family-based immigration included "trickle-down" provisions, so that any visas not used by one category of relatives are passed down to the next category and added to that category's ceiling. The act raised the ceiling on employment-based immigration from 54,000 annually to 140,000. It created a new, permanent lottery program under which immigrant visas are distributed randomly among applicants from countries with low immigrant-admission rates. This lottery program accounts for more than one-third of the 10-year cumulative increase in permanent immigration caused by the Immigration Act of 1990. Finally, the act established a short-term amnesty program to grant legal residence to up to 165,000 spouses and minor children of immigrants who were amnestied under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)." (4)

1992 surge of boat people from Haiti caused the federal government to establish refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay naval base until 1996 when the camps were shut down after most of the 46,000 Cubans and Haitians were paroled into the U.S. - Guantanamo Bay facility from Global Security

1992 On April 29 the nation's first multiethnic riot began in South Central Los Angeles, following the acquittal of 4 police officers in the beating of Rodney King, and the recent shooting of a black teen by a Korean shopkeeper - 10th anniversary report from CSLA - The New Face Of America from CBS News and CSLA

1994 - Operation Gatekeeper began Oct. 1 on San Diego border -2006 CRS Report

1994 - California voters on Nov. 8 approved Prop 187 that denied public benefits to illegals. A large protest march in Los Angeles by demonstrators wearing white shirts and waving Mexican flags appeared to persuade many white voters to support the bill - photo. The legality of the bill was appealed and the Gray Davis administration elected in 1998 refused to enforce the bill.

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. "The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) is what remained of H.R. 1915 after it was amended by the House Judiciary Committee, the full House, the full Senate and the administration. By the time it was signed into law on September 30, 1996, virtually all of the provisions affecting legal immigration numbers had been stripped out of it.
Members of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform protest the March 22, 2001 arrival of Mexican President Vicente Fox outside the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City City, CA (AFP)
All that remained were a provision requiring the sponsors of all family-based immigrants to prove the ability to maintain a family income of at least 125 percent (down from the original 200 percent) of the poverty level, and a provision limiting to 4,000 per year the number of illegal immigrants whose status may be adjusted to that of a legal permanent resident after their removal (i.e., deportation) has been canceled. The income requirement for sponsors is likely to have a small impact on admissions of spouses, minor children and parents of citizens, but will not have an impact on admissions of family-preference immigrants because of the large backlogs in those categories‹if one applicant is disqualified because his or her sponsor cannot meet the income requirement, someone else from the waiting list whose sponsor can meet the requirement will step forward." (4)

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." (3)

1997 In New York, Chinese immigrants from the mainland, especially Fujian province, erected a statue of Lin Zexu

Elian Gonzalez is taken by U.S. federal agents from his Miami relatives in a pre-dawn raid 4/22/00.
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 -

2000 On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the 6-year-old Cuban child Elian Gonzalez to rejoin his father in Cuba after prolonged court battles. Elian was picked up off the Florida coast in November 1999, after the boat in which his mother, stepfather and others had tried to escape to the US capsized. In October, the US House of Representatives approved the sale of food and medicines to Cuba.

2001 Immigration reform

Sources:

  1. Center for Immigration Studies
  2. Immigration Through Time
  3. Myth of the Melting Pot
  4. NumbersUSA includes Immigration Act of 1990 and Act of 1996
  5. BCIS and transition into DHS
  6. Coming to America from CBS News Feb. 15, 2001
  7. Elian Gonzalez
revised 5/8/03 by Schoenherr | Immigration History | Map list | Links