Immigration Timeline

European Colonial Immigration to British Colonies

Thomas Jefferson's ancestors begin immigrating to the Virginia Colony

Forced Migration - Nearly 600,000 people of West African origin are taken captive, enslaved, and transported to Colonial America and the United States

Era driven primarily by internal population growth

Italian immigrant Philip Mazzei arrives in Virginia

Federalist Alien Acts make it harder for immigrants to become citizens (Naturalization Acts), allow the President to imprison and deport non-citizens deemed dangerous (An Act Concerning Aliens) and expel non-citizens from a hostile nation (Alien Enemy Act)

Irish immigrant and master house joiner James Dinsmore helps transform Monticello

The Naturalization Law of 1802 overturns restrictive Federalist immigration laws

Brown Colbert emigrates to Liberia with his wife and two of their children

Waves of Irish, Northern European, and Chinese immigrants arrive in America

The anti-immigrant “Know Nothing” Movement forms and gains popularity

Influx of immigrants helps the Union win the Civil War

Constitutional Amendments 13-15 ratified, abolishing slavery, defining citizenship, and prohibiting denial of vote based on race

Wave of “New Immigrants” arrive from Central Europe

Chinese Exclusion Act

Plessy vs. Ferguson: U.S. Supreme Court rules that the 14th Amendment allows states to pass "separate but equal" laws enforcing racial segregation and inequality for the descendants of forced immigrants from Africa

U.S. vs. Kim Wong Ark: The Supreme Court rules anyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen regardless of the race or status of the parents

Ellis Island serves as the main point of entry for nearly 12,000,000 immigrants, primarily from Europe

Wave of immigration from the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe

The 1906 Naturalization Act creates the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization and requires English language literacy to gain naturalized citizenship

Expatriation Act revokes U.S. Citizenship for any woman who marries a foreign national

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), originally founded after the Civil War to terrorize free Blacks, is reborn as a racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic secret society

National Origins Formula quota system restricts immigration to maintain the ethnic proportion of the population based on the 1920 U.S. Census

U.S. Border Patrol established

Mexican Migration: Both legal, under the Bracero Program, and illegal migration surge during WWII to fill agricultural labor shortages in the U.S.

Japanese Internment Executive Order 9066 establishes camps for Japanese Americans

Magnuson Act allows Chinese immigrants and their descendants to gain citizenship

Luce-Cellar Act allows naturalization of Filipinos and Asian Indians

War Brides Act: Foreign born spouses of U.S. servicemembers allowed to immigrate

Displaced Persons Act / Refugee Relief Act - 540,000 immigrants from Europe

United Nations drafts the Refugee Convention; Immigration and Nationality Act passes in U.S.

Operation Wetback: Mass deportation of Latin Americans resulting in 1.3 million illegal immigrants forcibly returned to Mexico

Cuban refugees flee to the U.S. following Fidel Castro seizing power in Cuba

Immigration and Nationality Act ends the quota system

Wave of Vietnamese refugees enter the U.S.

U.S. Refugee Act expands immigration form war-torn countries

The Immigration Reform and Control Act makes it illegal to knowingly employ illegal immigrants and legalizes most undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. prior to January 1, 1982

Immigration Act of 1990 overhauls the 1965 Immigration Act, allowing for increased immigration by family members and creating employment visas

Influx of refugees seeking asylum from global war zones and failed states

U. S. Southern Border Crisis