U.S. Immigration Time Line
1795
Naturalization Act restricts citizenship to “free white persons who are residents of the
United States for at least five years and renounce their allegiance to their former country.”
1798
Alien and Sedition Acts increase the residency requirement for citizenship to 14 years. It
also allows the President to deport foreigners considered to be dangerous.
1802
Congress reduces the residency requirement for citizenship to five years.
1808
Slaves can no longer be imported into the United States.
1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo extends U.S. citizenship to approximately 80,000 Mexican
residents of the Southwest.
1870
Naturalization Act limits American citizenship to “white persons and persons of African
descent.” Asians cannot become citizens.
1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act restricts Chinese immigration.
1885
Alien Contract Labor Law prohibits any company or individual from bringing immigrants
into the United States under contract to perform labor.
1891
Congress makes people with contagious diseases, polygamists, and those convicted of a
“misdemeanor involving moral turpitude” ineligible for immigration. The Bureau of
Immigration is established.
1892
Ellis Island in New York harbor opens to process immigrants arriving in the United States.
1901
The Anarchist Exclusion Act allows immigrants to be excluded on the basis of their political
opinions.
1907
Expatriation Act is passed. American women who marry foreign nationals lose their citizenship.
1908
Under the Gentleman’s Agreement, the Japanese government limits emigration to the
United States to categories of people such as merchants, students, and diplomats. Laborers
can only emigrate to Hawaii, and they are barred from migrating to the U.S. mainland.
1917
Congress enacts a literacy requirement for immigrants and prohibits immigration from Asia,
except from Japan and the Philippines.
1921
Quota Act limits annual European immigration.
1922
Cable Act partially repeals the Expatriation Act. However, American women who marry
Asians still lose their citizenship.
1924
The Immigration Act ends all Japanese immigration to the United States. The Johnson-Reed
Act limits annual European immigration.
1934
The Tidings-McDuffie Act removes Filipinos of their status as U.S. nationals. Filipino immigration is restricted.
1940
The Alien Registration Act requires the registration and fingerprinting of all aliens in the
United States over the age of 14.
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1943
The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed.
1945
The War Brides Act allows foreign-born wives of U.S. citizens who had served in the U.S.
Armed Forces to enter the United States.
1946
Fiancées of American soldiers are allowed to enter the United States.
1948
The Displaced Persons Act permits Europeans displaced by World War II to enter the United
States outside of immigration quotas.
1950
The Internal Security Act prohibits the immigration of Communists.
1952
The McCarran Walter Immigration Act is passed. Japanese are granted an immigration
quota, and Japanese immigrants are allowed to become citizens.
1953
The Refugee Relief Act extends refugee status to non-Europeans.
1965
The Immigration and Nationality Act changes the quota system. This Act establishes a new
quota system of 20,000 from each country with a total of 170,000 immigrants allowed each
year. It also allows exemptions for reunifying families and gives preference to people with
professional skills.
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