Timeline of U.S. Immigration

To learn about the history of immigration to the United States, we created a timeline that wrapped around part of our classroom.  We focused our study on five laws that affected immigration to the U.S.--especially who could come.

1776- Open Door Policy

        An open door policy means that anyone who wanted to come to the United States could come.  The people who came between 1776 and 1860 were English, Irish, German, French, Scottish, and Polish.  It allowed free white people who had resided in the United States for five years to be eligible for citizenship.  A naturalized citizen is an immigrant who became a citizen.  They wanted immigrants to have more people in the country and more people to work.  Immigrants decided to come to get a better life and they didn’t have to listen to a king and to make money.

1882- Chinese Exclusion Act

        The Chinese Exclusion Act was put into effect in 1882.  This meant that not all Chinese immigrants were admitted.  This meant that Chinese laborers could not enter the United States.  At this time, there were twenty four legal entry points.  They were New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Providence on the East Coast.  On the West Coast, there was Seattle and San Francisco.  Angel Island was in San Francisco, which made it a big Chinese entry point.  Angel Island was a big place of Chinese immigrants to be able to come into the country before 1882.

 1924- Johnson-Reed Act

        The Johnson-Reed Act was basically where immigrants needed a visa from their home country to come to the United States.  Immigrants from the Western Hemisphere were exempt from the quota system.  The quota system was a setting of a certain number of immigrants from each country.  Three percent of groups already living in the U.S. in 1910 was the quota.  Germans, Irish, and English had much higher quotas than other groups.  The major change was that if you did not pass the mental and physical screening you will be sent back.  The Johnson-Reed Act cut the overall number of immigrants to 150,000 and reduced the quotas to two percent of each country’s immigrants already in the U.S.

1965- Immigration and Naturalization Act

        The Immigration and Naturalization Act said that visas would be granted on a first-come, first-served basis, with an eight step preference system.  Family reunification, the need for workers for American employers, and refugees were the reasons why immigrants got preference to come to the U.S.  Parents, spouses, and the children of immigrants already in the United States could be admitted without limit.  People who were professionals came to the U.S.  Many people from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Latin America also entered the U.S. at this time.

1996- Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act

        The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act was created to control the border, protect legal workers, and remove criminals with deportable issues.  If you have a criminal record before 1996, it could count against you.  Any minor incident could count as an “aggravated felony.” An immigrant could get deported if she or he was convicted of a crime with a one year sentence.  Even immigrants who had turned their life around even after they committed a crime could be deported.