History of US Immigration Law Timeline

The Page Act of 1875 became the first federal statute restricting immigration. It particularly targeted the entry of Chinese women and people suspected of entering for contract labor or immoral purposes.

After large-scale Chinese immigration, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. It limited further Chinese labor immigration and marked a major expansion of race-based federal exclusion.

Beginning in August 1882, shipping companies landing non-U.S. citizens were required to pay a federal head tax of fifty cents per passenger. The tax was subsequently increased several times.

Amendments made in 1884 tightened the rules governing Chinese immigrants’ departure and return and clarified that the restrictions applied to ethnic Chinese regardless of their country of origin.

Congress passed the Alien Contract Labor Law in 1885 to restrict the importation of workers under prearranged labor contracts. It reflected growing concern about employers using foreign labor to undermine domestic wages and conditions.

The Immigration Act of 1891 assumed federal control over immigration regulation from the states. It excluded people with contagious diseases and required excluded immigrants to be returned at shipping companies’ expense.

The Geary Act renewed Chinese exclusion for another ten years in 1892 and added enforcement provisions. The exclusion system was extended again in 1902 without a terminal date.

In 1902, Chinese exclusion was renewed without a terminal date. The exclusion laws remained in place until their repeal in 1943, although large-scale Chinese immigration did not resume until 1965.

After President William McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist of immigrant parentage, Congress enacted the Anarchist Exclusion Act in 1903. It excluded known anarchist agitators and expanded ideological grounds for exclusion.

Under the Gentlemen’s Agreement, Japan agreed to stop issuing passports to citizens seeking to emigrate to the United States. The arrangement restricted Japanese labor immigration without taking the form of a conventional exclusion statute.

California’s 1913 Alien Land Law restricted land ownership by aliens ineligible for citizenship. The state measure reflected the intersection of immigration status, racial classification, and property rights.

The Immigration Act of 1917 added a literacy test to federal immigration law. Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson’s veto after earlier literacy bills had been vetoed by Presidents Cleveland, Taft, and Wilson.

The Chinese exclusion laws were repealed in 1943. The repeal ended formal exclusion but initially preserved a small quota for Chinese immigration.

Federal control under the 1891 legislation led to the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Immigration. The bureau became the central federal institution responsible for administering immigration inspection and exclusion.

The federal immigration inspection station at Ellis Island opened in 1892. It became the best-known gateway for inspection of immigrants arriving in the United States.

Image source: Ellis Island

The original Ellis Island immigration facility burned in 1897. A replacement facility reopened in December 1900 and continued federal inspection operations.

The Naturalization Act of 1906 created the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, centralized naturalization records, and imposed uniform nationwide procedures, forms, and certificates. Courts were required to follow bureau procedures before naturalizing applicants.

The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established national immigration quotas for the Eastern Hemisphere. Each country’s quota was based on three percent of the foreign-born population of that nationality recorded in the 1910 census.

The Immigration Act of 1924 replaced the emergency quota system with the National Origins Formula. It set quotas based on the national origins of the white American population and left Western Hemisphere immigration unrestricted.

The Sabath Act of March 4, 1929, addressed declarations of intention in naturalization proceedings. It formed part of the period’s broader effort to regulate and standardize citizenship procedures.

During the Great Depression, President Hoover and the State Department effectively shut down much immigration. Annual immigration fell from 236,000 in 1929 to 23,000 in 1933.

Image source: Great Depression

The McCarran–Walter Act revised the National Origins Formula and created a four-class preference system for immigration. For the first time, racial distinctions were omitted from the United States Code, although the quota structure remained.

The Hart–Celler Act abolished the national-origins quota system. It reorganized immigration around family reunification and employment preferences and became the foundation of the modern visa system.

The Refugee Act of 1980 established comprehensive refugee policies and redefined “refugee” in accordance with United Nations norms. It created a more systematic process for refugee admissions and asylum policy.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act created penalties for employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants. It also granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants who met specified requirements.

The Immigration Act of 1990 expanded the 1965 system, increased the total immigration limit to 700,000, and increased available visas by forty percent. It also changed responsibility for naturalization.

Effective October 1, 1991, authority to naturalize people moved from courts to the United States Attorney General, who delegated it to the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Several laws signed in 1996 marked a turn toward harsher policies for legal and undocumented immigrants. The resulting enforcement framework contributed to the deportation of well over two million people since 1996.

The DREAM Act was initially introduced in 2001 to provide certain undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children with a possible path to legal status. It was later incorporated into broader proposals and reintroduced separately in 2009 and 2010.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changed American perspectives on immigration and national security. Immigration enforcement, screening, and border security subsequently received increased policy attention.

Image source: September 11 attacks

After 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was divided among agencies in the newly created Department of Homeland Security. USCIS handles naturalization and immigration services, ICE handles enforcement, and CBP handles border inspections.

Image source: United States Department of Homeland Security

The REAL ID Act of 2005 changed some visa limits, tightened asylum restrictions, made it easier to exclude suspected terrorists, and removed restrictions on constructing border fences.

From 2005 through 2007, Congress debated comprehensive immigration reform proposals involving legalization, guest-worker programs, and enhanced border security. Senate and House bills conflicted, and the 2007 proposal did not become law.

Arizona SB 1070, passed in 2010, made failure to carry immigration documents a state misdemeanor. It also authorized immigration-status verification for people stopped or arrested by state police, subject to subsequent legal challenges.

Image source: Arizona SB 1070

On April 17, 2013, the Senate’s Gang of Eight introduced S.744, a major immigration reform bill. The proposal included legalization, changes to legal immigration, and border-security measures.

The Senate passed S.744 on June 27, 2013, by a vote of 68–32. The bill did not become law after failing to advance through the House of Representatives.

On November 21, 2014, President Barack Obama signed two executive actions that had the effect of delaying deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants. The actions became the subject of extensive political and legal disputes.

Image source: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

In March 2020, the Trump administration launched the Title 42 immigration policy, using public-health authority to expel many people encountered at the border. The policy terminated on May 11, 2023, when the COVID-19 public health emergency was lifted.

In 2021, the Biden administration introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act in the House of Representatives. The proposal addressed legal status, citizenship, family immigration, employment immigration, and border administration.