Timeline March 2013
M A J OR US IMMIGRATION LAWS, 1790 - PRESENT 1790
U S
I mm i g r a t i o n
R e f o r m
•
1798 •
1864 •
1882 •
The 1790 Naturalization Act (1 Stat. 103) establishes the country’s first uniform rule for naturalization. The law provides that “free white persons” who have resided in the United States for at least two years may be granted citizenship, so long as they demonstrate good moral character and swear allegiance to the Constitution. The law also provides that the children (under 21) of naturalized citizens shall also become US citizens.
Congress enacts four laws known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts, which contain a number of stringent immigration enforcement provisions. Among other provisions, the laws require that noncitizens have resided in the United States for 14 years prior to naturalization, authorize the President to apprehend, restrain, and remove noncitizens who are citizens or subjects of countries with which the United States is at war, and allows the Executive Branch to deport any noncitizen deemed “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” Congress eventually repeals the naturalization provisions in 1802 and the other portions of the laws are permitted to expire. The Immigration Act of 1864 (13 Stat. 385) establishes the position of the Commissioner of Immigration, who will report to the Secretary of State, and provides that labor contracts made by immigrants outside the United States shall be enforceable in the US courts.
Congress enacts the Immigration Act of 1882 (22 Stat. 214), constituting one the first attempts at broad federal oversight of immigration. The law levies a tax of 50 cents for each passenger arriving by ship from a foreign port who is not a US citizen, to be paid by the ship’s owner. The proceeds are deposited into a fund in the US Treasury called the “immigration fund,” which the Treasury Secretary is authorized to use to defray expenses incurred in regulating immigration. The law further establishes that the United States will screen arriving passengers and that anyone deemed a “convict, lunatic, idiot, or person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge” shall not be allowed to land.