Immigration in the United States: Policy and Laws

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"This 1790 act set the new nation's naturalization procedures. It limited access to U.S. citizenship to white immigrants—in effect, to people from Western Europe."

"The Alien and Sedition Acts tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans and limited speech critical of the Government."

"This conflation of Chinese contract workers with African slaves and unfree “coolies” later fueled anti-Chinese immigration campaigns."

"This law legalized labor recruitment practices similar to indentured servitude in an attempt to encourage immigration to the United States, but it was quickly repealed."

"Ratified in 1868 to secure equal treatment for African Americans after the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed birthright citizenship for all persons born in the United States. It also provided for equal protections and due process for all legal residents.."

The Act extended the naturalization process to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent" while also maintaining exclusion of the process to naturalized Asian Americans.

This Act allowed the consul-general or consul at port cities.to decide and bar an individual’s entry to the United States. Thus prohibited the recruitment of laborers from “China, Japan or any Oriental country” and effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women. See also Forbidden Families: Emigration Experiences of Chinese Women under the Page Law 1875-1882

"This treaty updated the 1868 Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing the United Stated to restrict the migration of certain categories of Chinese workers. It moved U.S. immigration policy closer to outright Chinese exclusion."

In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.
See also: Angel Island

"Legislated a few months after the Chinese Exclusion Law, this immigration legislation expanded the ranks of excludable aliens to include other undesirable persons and attributes such as "convicts," "lunatics," and "those likely to become a public charge.""

The act prohibited certain laborers from immigrating to the United States.

The Act was introduced to expand upon the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882 and made reentry to the United States after a visit to China impossible.

This 1891 immigration law clarified and centralized the immigration enforcement authority of the federal government, extended immigration inspection to land borders, and expanded the list of excludable and deportable immigrants.

"Congress renewed the Chinese exclusion laws and expanded enforcement mechanisms by requiring that Chinese prove their lawful presence in the United States by carrying a Certificate of Residence, a precursor of the green card system, or be liable for detention and deportation. "