1882 |
Chinese Exclusion Act restricts Chinese immigration. |
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Immigration Act of levies a tax of 50 cents per immigrant and makes several categories of immigrants ineligible to enter the United States , including "lunatics" and people likely to become public charges. |
1885 |
Alien Contract Labor Law bars prohibited any company or individual from bringing foreigners into the United States under contract to perform labor here. The only exceptions are those who were brought to do domestic service and skilled workmen who should be needed here to help establish some new trade or industry. |
1891 |
Congress makes polygamists, "persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease," and those convicted of "a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude" ineligible for immigration. The act establishes the Bureau of Immigration within the Treasury Department. |
1892 |
Ellis Island opens; serves as processing center for 12 million immigrants over the next 30 years. |
1901 |
After President William McKinley is assassinated by a Polish anarchist, Congress enacts the Anarchist Exclusion Act, which allows immigrants to be excluded on the basis of their political opinions. |
1907 |
Expatriation Act declares that an American woman who marries a foreign national loses her citizenship. |
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Under the Gentleman's Agreement with Japan , the United States agrees not to restrict Japanese immigration in exchange for Japan 's promise not to issue passports to Japanese laborers for travel to the continental United States . Japanese laborer are permitted to go to Hawaii , but are barred by executive order from migrating from Hawaii to the mainland. |
1913 |
California 's Alien Land Law prohibits "aliens ineligible for citizenship" (Chinese and Japanese) from owning property in the state. It provides the model for Similar acts in other states. |
1917 |
Congress enacts a literacy requirement for immigrants over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The law requires immigrants to be able to read 40 words in some language. The law also specifies that immigration is prohibited from Asia, except from Japan and the Philippines . |
1921 |
Quota Act limits annual European immigration to 3 percent of the number of a nationality group in the United States in 1910. |
