Timeline Of Key Us Immigration Legislation

By Author: Annette Kiernan
Total Articles: 3
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Immigration will always be a hot and heated debate in political circles in the US. Every election year, immigration takes center stage and politicians have a hard time to either angle for the minority votes or to get the conservative vote. However, except for the red-Indians everyone in America is an immigrant.

Immigration will always be a hot and heated debate in political circles in the US. Every election year, immigration takes center stage and politicians have a hard time to either angle for the minority votes or to get the conservative vote. However, except for the red-Indians everyone in America is an immigrant. America has always extended her arms so many can come and realize their potential in the land of opportunity. A New York lawyer knows this rings true with America giving over a million immigrants citizenship each year, actually much more than any other nation in the world. Here are some key US immigration timeline legislation you need to know about:

1790: The 1790 act was made to exclude Blacks and Asians, only accepting white naturalization. A US immigration lawyer will attest that these were intolerant ...
... times in America.

1865: Legislation during this period was passed to allow blacks to become naturalized. More so, as is common knowledge to New York lawyers, this discontinued slavery and forced servitude. This came out as one of the fruits of the Civil war victory, which granted Africans more rights.

1875: Any good US immigration lawyer will know that America passed its first immigration law the Page Act in this year. The Law barred immigrants from Asia terming them as undesirables. Also, the law was against those who were considered as convicts from their own country. The Law was named after its sponsor Republican Horace F. Page who had strong views especially of the Chinese. However, the law cut across from China, Japan to all oriental countries.

1921: The Emergency quota act was enacted and revolutionized US immigration law. It limited the number of immigrants from Europe to 3% of their constituent population in America via the 1910 census. The act was meant only to accept people from Northern Europe, where the American government defended itself by claiming it was protecting its culture. A US immigration lawyers a hold it as a well-accepted view that this was a response to fleeing Jews from Western Europe, who were escaping persecution. The fact that they used the census of 1910 where there was virtually no surge of Jews rather than 1920 gave credence to this assertion.

1924: The Johnson-Reed Act reduced to 2% from 3 % the number of immigrants allowed to enter from a country whose nationals had already attained citizenship by 1890.

1965: A good New York lawyer will be sure to tell you that the Hart Cellar Act abolished the quota system. The previous policies had excluded Asians and Africans whilst giving North and Western Europeans preference over Central and Southern Europeans. Numerically the previous act had restricted visas to 170,000 a year. The Hart Cellar act determined access for immigrants would be judged by their skill and relatives who are citizens in America.

These are some of the main legislations, which shaped the American immigration law; however, there has been further legislation in 1990 and 1998. It seems after the birth of the nation US immigration has always been an issue until today and will probably continue to be. As time has passed, it seems the law has become more and more inclusive of all who want to seek the “American Dream.”
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