History of Immigration Laws in the U.S. How have the laws of our immigration system changed over time? When did the “door” to this country swing open? And when did it swing closed? Which different groups of people were affected by these laws? What different kinds of reasons prompted the U.S. to pass these laws?

Two Vocab Terms Quota: A cap on how many immigrants can come from one specific country Amnesty: Forgiveness for breaking a law; allows those here illegally to seek citizenship

Chinese Exclusion Act: 1882 Restricted almost all Chinese immigration to the U.S. First limit of any kind on immigration Was a result of racist beliefs that blamed Chinese immigrants for economic problems

Teddy Roosevelt's “Gentleman's Agreement”: 1907 Roosevelt agreed to end segregation of Japanese in U.S. Japanese gov’t agreed not to let any more people immigrate to the U.S. Again, it reflected racism towards Asians, especially in California

National Origins Act: 1924 Set quotas for immigration from individual countries based on 1890 census (2% of that pop. annually) Quotas were very uneven: 100 people from each African country Russia: 2,248 Italy: 3,845 England: 34,007 Germany: 51,227

Immigration and Nationality Act: 1965 Abolished nationality and race-based quotas Set overall limits, but treated all countries equally Created family-based visas

Refugee Act: 1980 Designated up to 70,000 visas per year to go to refugees (people whose lives are threatened by war/discrimination in their home country)

Immigration Reform and Control Act: 1986 Granted amnesty to 3,000,000 illegal immigrants living in the country Increased penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants

For what different reasons have we passed laws on immigration? How do our attitudes guide our policies?