Law

Roots

Provisions

Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882)

Many on the west coast of the US (California) feared a "yellow peril" of Chinese immigration. As more and more Chinese immigrated to work on the western railroads, many feared competition for jobs .

This law severely limited Chinese immigration into the US, it made provisions for types of workers allowed and barred families from joining existing immigrants."

Gentleman's Agreement
(1907)

In the wake of the "yellow peril" and the barring of Chinese immigration, the Japanese and American governments reached an agreement barring further Japanese immigration into the US.

While not a formal law, the agreement did curb Japanese immigration into the US, as much a desire of the Japanese government as the US government.

Literacy Tests
(1917)

Many believed that allowing non-English speaking immigrants into the US was a threat to assimilation, as language and loyalty was still tied to the immigrant's "homeland". 

The literacy tests denied admission to any immigrant who could not pass a basic reading/writing test.

Emergency Quota Act
(1921)

With the memory of World War I still fresh in the American psyche, many looked to isolate the US from involvement or association with foreign governments. Part of this reaction was also a call to limit immigration.

The Emergency Quota act limited the number of immigrants allowed into the US to 350,000 per year.

National Origins Act
(1924)

The nativist reaction to the immigration of the Gilded Age was a call to not only limit the number of immigrants allowed into the US, but also restrict the country of their origin. This was as much a racist reaction against the increase in southern and eastern Europeans and Asian immigration as a call for increased isolation from world affairs.

The National Origins Act further restricted immigration by basing the numbers of immigrants allowed from a specific region of the world. The effect was a severe bias towards the northern and western European nations that had been the "traditional" areas of immigration during the era of "old" immigration. 

National Origins Act
(1929)

With isolationism taking further hold during the 1920's, many critics called for greater and greater restrictions on the number of immigrants.

The second origins act further reduced the number of immigrants allowed into the US to 150,000 per year.

Immigration Act of 1965
(1965)

With attitudes towards US involvement in world affairs changing and an increased desire to reopen American shores to immigration, the restrictive immigration laws of the US were reexamined.

The 1965 Immigration Law reopened the US borders for greater numbers of immigrants, as well as greatly modifying the regional and ethnic restrictions and instituting political oppression as immigration reasoning.

Immigration Reform and Control Act
(1986)

The increased problem of illegal immigration in the 1980's caused a call for greater monitoring and control of US borders.

The act increased the size and scope of the US border patrol service as well as streamlining the process of deportation of illegal immigrants. The law also punished employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants, but provided limited blanket amnesty for illegals who had been living in the US since 1982 or prior.