List of United States immigration laws facts for kids

The United States has many laws and rules about who can come into the country and how people can become citizens. Most of these laws are written down in a special part of the United States Code called Title 8. These rules have changed a lot over time, showing how the country's ideas about immigration and citizenship have also changed.

Important Laws About Immigration and Citizenship

Over the years, the U.S. Congress has passed many laws that shape who can come to the country and how they can become a citizen. Here are some of the most important ones:

Early Laws on Becoming a Citizen

• Naturalization Act of 1790: This was one of the very first laws about becoming a U.S. citizen. It said that only "white persons" could become naturalized citizens. This meant people of other races could not become citizens, even if they lived in the U.S.
• Naturalization Act of 1795: This law made it take longer to become a citizen.
• Naturalization Act of 1798: This law made it even longer, requiring immigrants to live in the U.S. for 14 years before they could become citizens.
• Alien Friends Act (1798): This law gave the president the power to deport (send away) any immigrant who was thought to be a danger to the country.
• Alien Enemies Act (1798): This law allowed the president to deport immigrants whose home countries were at war with the U.S. This law is still in effect today.
• Naturalization Law of 1802: This law canceled the Naturalization Act of 1798, making it easier to become a citizen again.

Laws About Who Can Enter and Stay

• Steerage Act of 1819: This law required ship captains to report information about all the passengers they brought into the U.S. This was one of the first steps to keep track of immigrants.
• An Act to Encourage Immigration (1864): This was the first big law that actually encouraged people to immigrate to the U.S.
• Civil Rights Act of 1866: This important law said that anyone born in the U.S. was a citizen. This idea, called birthright citizenship, was later added to the U.S. Constitution.
• Fourteenth Amendment (1868): This amendment to the Constitution officially made birthright citizenship a constitutional right.
• Expatriation Act of 1868: This law confirmed that people had the right to give up their American citizenship if they wanted to.
• Naturalization Act of 1870: This law expanded who could become a citizen to include people of "African nativity and to persons of African descent." However, other non-white people were still not allowed to become citizens.
• Page Act of 1875: This was the very first federal law to limit immigration. It stopped people considered "undesirable" from entering, especially Asian people who were coming to work under unfair contracts. It also made it illegal to bring people from China or Japan to the U.S. against their will for work.
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): This was a very strict law that stopped Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. for 10 years. It also said Chinese people could not become U.S. citizens. This act is seen as the beginning of "illegal immigration" in America because it created rules about who could and could not enter.
• Immigration Act of 1882: This law put a 50-cent tax on each immigrant to help pay for immigration officials.
• Alien Contract Labor Law (1885): This law made it illegal to bring foreigners into the U.S. if they already had a contract to work here.
• Scott Act (1888): This law stopped Chinese people who had lived in America from returning if they left the country.
• Immigration Act of 1891: This was the first complete set of immigration laws for the U.S. It created the Bureau of Immigration to enforce these laws and deport people who were in the country unlawfully. It also banned polygamists (people with multiple spouses) and those with contagious diseases from entering.
• Geary Act (1892): This law made the Chinese Exclusion Act even stronger.
• Immigration Act of 1903 (Anarchist Exclusion Act): This law added new groups of people who were not allowed to enter the U.S., including anarchists (people who believe in no government) and people with certain health conditions.
• Naturalization Act of 1906: This law made the process of becoming a citizen more standard across the country and required immigrants to know some English to become citizens.
• Immigration Act of 1917 (Barred Zone Act): This law greatly limited immigration from Asia by creating an "Asiatic Barred Zone." It also required most immigrants over 16 to pass a literacy test (a test of their reading and writing skills).
• Jones–Shafroth Act (1917): This law granted birthright citizenship to anyone born in Puerto Rico after April 11, 1899.
• Emergency Quota Act (1921): This law started limiting the number of immigrants allowed from each country each year. It set a quota (a limit) based on how many people from that country were already in the U.S. in 1910. This led to more people trying to enter the U.S. illegally from Canada and Mexico.
• Cable Act of 1922: Before this law, American women would lose their U.S. citizenship if they married a foreign man. This law changed that, allowing women to keep their citizenship even if they married someone from another country.
• Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act): This law created the United States Border Patrol to guard the country's borders. It also set the first permanent limits on how many immigrants could come to the U.S. each year and continued the national-origin quota system.
• Indian Citizenship Act (1924): This law granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans.
• Tydings–McDuffie Act (1934): This act granted independence to the Philippines, which was a U.S. territory at the time. It then treated all Filipinos as foreigners and set a very small quota of only 50 Filipino immigrants per year.
• Alien Registration Act (1940): This law required all non-citizens living in the U.S. to register with the government and be fingerprinted.
• Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943 (Magnuson Act): This law finally ended the Chinese Exclusion Act. It allowed Chinese people already in the U.S. to become citizens and set a small quota of 105 new Chinese immigrants per year.
• War Brides Act (1945): This law made it easier for the spouses and children of American soldiers to immigrate to the U.S. by exempting them from immigration limits.
• Displaced Persons Act (1948): This law allowed many people who had been forced from their homes in Europe after World War II to come and live permanently in the U.S.
• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act): This law set a quota for immigrants with skills needed in the U.S. It also gave the government more power to deport immigrants suspected of having Communist sympathies.
• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act): This was a very important law that ended the national-origin quotas. Instead, it started a new system that focused on bringing families together and attracting skilled workers. It also set limits on immigration from different parts of the world.
• Cuban Adjustment Act (1966): This law gave special legal status to Cuban nationals who came to the U.S.
• Refugee Act (1980): This law created a clear policy for admitting refugees to the U.S., following the United Nations' definition of a refugee. It set an annual limit on the number of refugees allowed.
• Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (Simpson–Mazzoli Act): This law tried to control illegal immigration. It made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire undocumented immigrants and offered amnesty (a chance to become legal residents) to many undocumented immigrants who were already in the U.S. It also increased border enforcement.
• Immigration Act of 1990: This law increased the total number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. and created a new category for "diversity" immigrants from countries that had sent fewer immigrants in the past.
• Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992: This law allowed many Chinese students who were in the U.S. during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests to stay permanently.
• Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996: This law made it harder for undocumented immigrants to get welfare benefits, increased border enforcement, and made it more difficult for legal immigrants to access certain benefits.
• Child Citizenship Act of 2000: This law made it easier for children adopted by U.S. citizens to automatically become citizens themselves.
• Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002: This law increased the number of Border Patrol agents and required foreign nationals in the U.S. to carry IDs with biometric information (like fingerprints).
• Homeland Security Act of 2002: This major law created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It moved many agencies dealing with transportation, customs, immigration, and border security under the DHS to improve coordination and national security.
• REAL ID Act (2005): This law set national standards for state driver's licenses and other IDs, making them more secure. It also made it harder to get political asylum and increased border enforcement.
• Secure Fence Act of 2006: This law allowed for the construction of fences along parts of the Mexico–United States border.
• Citizenship for Children of Military Members and Civil Servants Act (2020): This law made sure that children born to U.S. citizens working for the government (either military or civilian) abroad are granted citizenship.

Important Actions by Presidents

Besides laws passed by Congress, presidents can also take actions that affect immigration and citizenship. These are called "executive actions."

• Operation Wetback (1954): This was an effort by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to find and deport undocumented immigrants in certain areas along the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Executive Order 12711 (1990): This order by the president allowed Chinese nationals to delay their deportation after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. This was later made into a law.
• Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) (2012): This program allows certain young people who came to the U.S. as children to apply for "deferred action." This means the government agrees not to deport them for a period of time, and they can also get permission to work. DACA does not give them legal status, but it protects them from deportation.

See also

• History of immigration to the United States
• Illegal immigration to the United States
• Immigration to the United States
• United States nationality law