From Nation of Immigrants to Anti-Immigration
1620: English Pilgrims establish Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts.
1624: Dutch settlers begin the colony of New Netherland in present-day New York.1626: The Dutch
establish the settlement known as New Amsterdam, now Manhattan.
1638: The Swedes establish the colony New Sweden, in what is now Wilmington, Del.
1654: The first Jewish immigrants to America arrive in New Amsterdam (modern day New York City) as
refugees from a Brazilian colony established by the Dutch.
1683: German immigrants settle Germantown, Pa., the first permanent settlement of Germans.
1751: Benjamin Franklin, worried about the presence of German immigrants in Pennsylvania, writes,
“This Pennsylvania will in a few years become a German colony; instead of [their] learning our language,
we must learn theirs, or live as in a foreign country.”
1790: Congress passes the Naturalization Act of 1790, establishing a two-year residency requirement to
qualify for U.S. citizenship. Citizenship is open to immigrants who are “free white persons” of “good
moral character” but not to “persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States.”
1795: Congress increases the required residency period for citizenship to five years. Citizenship is still
available only to “free white person[s].”
1820 –1870: The first wave of massive immigration begins, bringing 12.5 million people from northern
and western Europe into New York City. About a third are Irish, fleeing the potato famine. Another third
are Germans, escaping conflict in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1849: Significant Chinese immigration begins with the California gold rush.
1854: The California Supreme Court, in People v. Hall, bars Chinese immigrants from testifying in any
trial involving a white man.
1840–1860: The American Party, a nativist group, grows, with goals to limit the immigration of German
and Irish immigrants. Also called the Know Nothings, they propose a 21-year waiting period before
immigrants can become voting citizens.
1860: New York City, with 203,760 Irish-born residents, becomes the densest concentration of Irish in
the world.
1862: California passes “An Act to Protect Free White Labor against Competition with Chinese Coolie
Labor, and to discourage the Immigration of the Chinese into the State of California.”
1870: The Naturalization Act of 1870 restricts American citizenship to “white persons and persons of
African descent,” thus excluding Asian immigrants.
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1875: The Supreme Court rules that immigration is a federal matter and not a concern for either state or
local government.
1881: The second major immigration wave begins and runs through 1920. Nearly 23.5 million people
arrive, mainly from Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia.
1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act bars Chinese laborers from entering the country for 10 years. Chinese
already in the United States become permanent resident aliens. The act is not repealed until 1943.
1882: Russian anti-Semitism prompts a sharp rise in Jewish emigration.
1890: New York is home to as many Germans as Hamburg, Germany.
1891: The Immigration and Naturalization Service is created to administer federal laws relating to the
admission, exclusion, naturalization and deportation of aliens residing in the U.S.
1892: Ellis Island, the first federal immigration screening station, opens.
1905: Organized labor forms the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League to protest the increase of cheap
foreign labor and its perceived threat to American workers.
1907: The U.S. and Japan sign the Gentleman’s Agreement, an informal agreement that the U.S. will not
restrict Japanese immigration. The U.S. nullifies this in 1924.
1909: In the “Halladjian Ruling,” the federal government reclassifies Armenians as “Caucasian” because
“...They [Armenians] learned a little bit more English than the Japanese did and they look more
American.”
1910: The Mexican Revolution begins. Between 1910 and 1920, 890,000 Mexicans legally immigrate to
the United States.
1914–1918: World War I sees the growth of strong anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly toward
German-Americans.
1917: The Immigration Act of 1917 creates the Asiatic Barred Zone, barring entry into the U.S. of
persons from most of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands. The law also excludes criminals, epileptics,
alcoholics, professional beggars, polygamists, anarchists, idiots and the illiterate over age 16.
1922: Japanese immigrant, Takao Ozawa, attempts to demonstrate to U.S. courts that the Japanese are
members of the white race and, therefore, as immigrants to the U.S., are eligible for naturalization. The
Supreme Court rules that the Japanese are not white, but members of an “unassimilable race.”
1922: The Cable Act effectively revokes the U.S. citizenship of any woman who marries an alien
“ineligible for naturalization,” that is, Asians.
1923: Bhagat Singh Thind, a Punjabi Sikh who settled in the U.S., argues in court that he belongs to the
Aryan race and is, thus, Caucasian and eligible for U.S. citizenship. The Supreme Court disagrees and
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establishes Indian immigrants as “Asian,” making them ineligible and retroactively stripping citizenship
from those already naturalized.
1924: An immigration quota system based on ethnicity is established. Eighty-six percent of permitted
entries are from northern Europe, while nations like Russia, the source of most Jewish immigrants, and
Italy are cut back. Asians are excluded almost completely. Immigration to the U.S. drops from 1 million
people a year to 165,000.
1929–1939: Mexican Repatriation begins, forcing more than 1 million people of Mexican descent to
leave the United States. About 60 percent of them are U.S. citizens.
1935: The Filipino Repatriation Act offers Filipinos free transit back to the Philippines. In 1940, the
repatriation program is declared unconstitutional.
1940: The Alien Registration Act calls for all non-citizen adult residents to file a statement of their
occupation and personal status, as well as a record of their political beliefs. Approximately 5 million
aliens register.
1942: The Bracero Program provides temporary residence permits to Mexican farm-workers, easing the
agricultural labor shortage in the U.S. during World War II.
1945: Large-scale Puerto Rican immigration begins as economic depression continues on the island. U.S.
factory owners recruit heavily and over the next decade, 25,000 Puerto Ricans a year move to the
continental U.S. to work.
1945: The War Brides Act authorizes the admission of the wives and children of military personnel
without regard to immigration quotas or other standards.
1946: President Truman signs the Luce-Celler Act, re-establishing immigration to the U.S. (within annual
quotas) from the Philippines and India, and grants naturalization rights to Filipino- and IndianAmericans.
1948: The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 opens a limited period of admission into the U.S. for European
victims of the Nazi government and/or those who cannot return home for fear of persecution based on
their race, religion or political opinions.
1952: The Immigration and Nationality Act removes racial exclusions but bars any persons deemed
diseased, politically radical, unlawful and, most specifically, associated with communism. The act admits
entry to persons from Asian countries that supported the Allies during World War II.
1953: The Refugee Relief Act allows entry to certain orphans and to refugees from Europe, including
those from the Soviet Union unable to return to their home country because of fear of persecution,
natural calamity or military operations.
1954: Ellis Island, where more than 12 million immigrants entered the U.S., closes.
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1954: The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service begins Operation Wetback, deporting more than
1 million Mexicans living near the U.S.-Mexico border.
1965: President Johnson signs the Immigration and Nationality Bill, which eliminates the quota system
as a basis for admission. The bill is seen as an extension of the civil rights movement to end legal
discrimination based on race or ethnicity. Visa limitations are set by hemisphere, and a system of
preferences is created, with priority given to family reunification and needed skills.
1966: The Cuban Adjustment Act admits Cubans into the U.S. under special quotas.
1977: The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended to abolish separate quotas for the Western and
Eastern hemispheres. An annual quota of 290,000 is established for all immigrants, with a maximum of
20,000 for any one country.
1980: The Refugee Act establishes a separate admissions policy for refugees and reduces the global
immigration quota from 290,000 to 270,000.
1986: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provides amnesty for illegal aliens residing
continuously in the U.S. since 1982, allowing them to apply for legal residency. It also prohibits
employers from hiring illegal aliens and increases inspection and enforcement at U.S. borders. A path
toward citizenship is created for undocumented seasonal agricultural workers.
1990: President George H. W. Bush signs a bill to increase legal immigration ceilings by 40 percent (to a
total of 700,000), triple employment-based immigration, create a diversity admissions category and
establish temporary protected status for those jeopardized by armed conflict or natural disasters in their
native countries.
1994: Operation Gatekeeper attempts to steer illegal immigrants from Mexico eastward and away from
the San Diego area and introduces a computerized ID system to identify repeat border offenders.
1994: California voters pass Proposition 187, barring illegal immigrants from using state education and
health services. The law is repealed in 1999.
1996: President Clinton signs into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act. Among its provisions are cuts in government aid to all immigrants. The president also increases
enforcement and penalties for undocumented persons, while decreasing avenues to citizenship.
1996: The Arizona Legislature passes a law requiring proof of citizenship to obtain a driver's license. The
law’s author is Russell Pearce, then director of the state Motor Vehicle Division, later to become the
driving force behind SB 1070, a bill to identify undocumented workers.
1997: In Chandler, Ariz., police and federal agents spend five days rounding up suspected illegal
immigrants. They make 340 arrests, taking some legal residents into custody. City officials later pay
$500,000 in court settlements.
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1998: California voters pass Proposition 227, effectively ending bilingual education in the state and
replacing it with an English-immersion model.
2000: Arizona voters ban bilingual education, mandating English immersion in schools.
2002: Massachusetts voters approve a measure to end bilingual education, putting non-English-speaking
children into mainstream classrooms with teachers that speak only English.
2004: Arizona voters pass Proposition 200, which denies public benefits to undocumented persons,
makes it a crime for public employees to fail to report undocumented immigrants seeking benefits and
requires proof of citizenship to register to vote.
2006: In Arizona, state Rep. Russell Pearce introduces a bill making it a state crime to be in the country
illegally, and allowing peace officers to question individuals’ immigration status. The bill also restricts
employers from hiring illegal immigrants. Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoes it, and 100,000 people march on
the state Capitol, calling for national immigration reform. Voters later pass ballot measures requiring
that undocumented immigrants to pay out-of-state college tuition and declaring them ineligible for state
student financial aid; other measures deny bail to illegal immigrants charged with a crime, and make
English the state's official language. All ballot measures pass with 70 percent of the vote.
July 2006: Georgia passes one of the country’s toughest immigration laws, making it harder for illegal
immigrants to receive social services, and punishing companies that hire undocumented workers.
November 2007: Oklahoma passes HB 1804, which cuts state services to undocumented immigrants,
gives police officers more power to check the citizenship status of any person they arrest, and makes it a
crime for anyone to assist undocumented immigrants. Passage results in the mass exodus of 50,000
immigrants and reported economic losses of $1.8 billion.
May 2007: Kansas becomes the 30th state to make English its official language.
2008: In Arizona, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio begins conducting immigration sweeps. Businesses
are targeted, using Arizona’s employer-sanctions law to execute worksite raids.
January 2010: The year begins with Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce introducing Senate Bill 1070,
which allows police officers to act as deportation agents. In February, it passes the state Senate, 17-13.
In May, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signs a law banning state schools from teaching ethnic studies courses,
targeting Chicano-oriented programs taught in Tucson.
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May 2010: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signs a law banning state schools from teaching ethnic studies
courses, targeting Chicano-oriented programs taught in Tucson.
June 2010: Fremont, Neb., passes a city law banning employers from hiring and landlords from renting
to illegal immigrants. Approximately 57 percent of Fremont's voters support the ordinance.
Sources:
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http://www.ellisislandimmigrants.org/ellis_island_immigrants.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Timeline.html
http://www.unc.edu/~perreira/198timeline.html
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/18/20100618arizona-immigration-law-timelineslideshow.html
http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=12461
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