Immigration

Introduction
A nation of immigrants
Dreamers, DACA, and pathways to citizenship
Pros
- Pro 1: Many immigrants without legal status have lived in the U.S. for years, paying taxes and contributing to the country, and deserve a path to citizenship.
- Pro 2: Dreamers deserve a chance at citizenship, because they arrived in the U.S. as children, had no choice in breaking immigration laws, and often know no other country.
- Pro 3 The U.S. is not just a nation of laws but a nation of immigrants, and its policies should reflect this reality.
Pro quotes
Cons
- Con 1: immigrants without legal status have broken the law that legal immigrants have followed and should not be rewarded for their crimes with citizenship.
- Con 2: Existing immigration laws must be enforced, and various paths to citizenship already exist.
- Con 3: A Congressional option that stops short of granting citizenship would respect the Constitution, keep immigrant families together, while not rewarding illegality with the rights of citizens.
Con quotes
U.S. immigrant without legal status population estimates
Demographics of immigrants without legal status in the United States, 2019
States (and D.C.) that allow immigrants without legal status to obtain driver’s licenses
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- D.C.
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
Historical timeline
- 1607-1799
  - 1607 - Beginning of colonial immigration; English settlers arrive in America
  - 1619 - Importation of enslaved African begins
  - 1637 - Massachusetts requires permission to host aliens
  - 1656 - Anti-Quaker immigration sentiments popular but Quakers still immigrate
  - 1670 - 10,000 indentured servants kidnapped from England and sent to the colonies
  - March 12, 1700 - Massachusetts prohibits “lame, ompotent, or infirm persons” from entering
  - 1717-1769 - 36,000 British convicts transported to America after passage of Transportation Act of 1717
  - September 17, 1717 - Pennsylvania enacts oath of allegiance for German immigrants
  - September 21, 1727-1729 - Pennsylvania’s immigration law ignored by ship masters; New tax and health inspections imposed on immigrants
  - 1740 - British Parliament enacts the Plantation Act, which serves as model for future U.S. naturalization acts
  - 1773 - England stops emigration to the colonies; Fines imposed upon emigrants and ship masters violating the law
  - 1781-1788 - Articles of Confederation kept citizenship and naturalization of immigrants under individual states’ control
  - March 26, 1790 - First Alien Naturalization Act enacted by the newly created U.S. government
  - January 24, 1795 - Naturalization Act of 1795 adds rules to the citizenship process
  - June-July 1798 - Alien and Sedition Acts enacted; U.S. president given power to punish and deport immigrants; residency requirement for naturalization increases to 14 years
- 1800-1849
  - 1800 - Congress reduces naturalization residency requirements to five years
  - 1808 - Foreign slave trade becomes illegal; 50,000 enslaved people become first “illegal aliens” in the U.S.
  - 1814-1850 - Native Americans exempted from naturalization and forced from tribal lands; Enslaved populations in ceded land increase dramatically
  - 1816 - Irish immigration to U.S. begins along with anti-Irish sentiments in U.S.
  - 1830 - 1847 - American “nativists” gain political power and advocate 21-Year residence requirement for naturalization
  - 1837 - Supreme Court rules in New York v. Miln that states may take precautionary measures against the importation of “paupers, vagabonds, convicts, and infectious articles”
  - 1840s - Naturalization of Germans and Irish are expedited and offered free of charge during election time
  - February 2, 1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo results in United States acquiring Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, California, and parts of Utah and Nevada
  - February 7, 1849 - Supreme Court rules that Congress alone can regulate immigration
  - 1849 - Know-Nothing Party forms and pushes for major restrictions on immigrants
- 1850-1899
  - February 1862 - President Lincoln acts to prohibit the “Coolie Trade”
  - 1863-1869 - Central Pacific Railroad hires Chinese laborers and the Union Pacific hires Irish laborers to construct the first transcontinental railroad
  - July 4, 1864 - First congressional attempt to centralize immigration control; A commissioner of immigration is appointed by the U.S. president
  - 1868 - 20,000 to 30,000 expedited naturalizations before elections in New York City
  - 1870-1880 - Chinese immigration to the United States increases during the Gold Rush
  - July 14, 1870 - Naturalization Act of 1870 extends naturalization to formerly enslaved people
  - March 1875 - Page Law toughens penalties for transporting Asians to the United States
  - 1875-1880 - State immigration laws become unconstitutional; Congress begins to bring immigration under direct federal control for the first time
  - 1880 - Burlingame Treaty is revised; Chinese immigration is suspended
  - 1880’s - First “great wave” of European immigrants to the United States
  - 1880s - Anti-Chinese riots spread over the northwestern states; Oregon’s constitution prevents Chinese from owning land
  - 1882 - Immigration Exclusion Act prohibits immigration of criminals, poor, and mentally ill
  - May 6, 1882 - Chinese Exclusion Act passes and immigration exclusion era begins
  - 1885 - Alien Contract Labor Law bans immigration of workers to break strikes
  - 1886 - Statue of Liberty unveiled; “The huddled masses yearning to be free” invited to immigrate
  - 1887 - Chinese immigration lowers dramatically
  - 1891 - Congress establishes the first federal administrative agency for the regulation of immigration
  - January 2, 1892 - Ellis Island opens as immigrant entry checkpoint
  - May 18, 1896 - U.S. Supreme Court rules due legal process extends to immigrants without legal status
  - March 28, 1898 - Supreme Court confirms that 14th Amendment gives citizenship to all persons born in the United States
- 1900-1949
  - 1900 - Organic Act of 1900 grants U.S. citizenship to every person born in Hawaii before its 1898 annexation, including people of Japanese and Chinese ancestry
  - 1903 - Anarchist Exclusion Act enacted; Exclusion of immigrants based on political ideology begins
  - June 29, 1906 - Naturalization Act creates Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization
  - March 2, 1907 - Expatriation Act revokes citizenship of American women who marry foreigners
  - 1907 - United States and Japan sign the “gentlemen’s agreement" allowing Japanese “picture brides” to immigrate
  - October 5, 1909 - “The Melting Pot” play opens on Broadway; Its title becomes a metaphor for the United States
  - 1910 - Mexican Revolution drives thousands of Mexicans across the U.S.-Mexico border
  - 1910 - Angel Island immigration station opens
  - 1911 - Dillingham Commission Report recommends limiting admission of immigrants based on “economic or business considerations”
  - 1913 - Bureaus of Immigration and Naturalization created and moved to the Department of Labor
  - 1914 - Eugenics movement influences immigration policy
  - 1915-1916 - U.S. Congress authorizes “mounted inspectors” along the U.S.-Mexico border
  - 1917 - Immigration Act of 1917 denies entry to immigrants from eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands
  - 1920 - Estimated 17,300 Chinese entered the United States illegally since the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
  - May 1921 - First Quota Act becomes law and limits the number of immigrants from certain countries
  - November 13, 1922 - Ozawa v. U.S. Supreme Court decision declares Japanese people ineligible for citizenship
  - February 19, 1923 - U.S. Supreme Court decides in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind that Asian Indians do not qualify for naturalization because they are not considered “white”
  - May 26, 1924 - Johnson-Reed Immigration Act reduces quotas
  - May 28, 1924 - U.S. Border Patrol established with Labor Appropriation Act of 1924
  - June 2, 1924 - Indian Citizenship Act grants citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States
  - June 1927 - U.S. labor secretary estimates that over 1,000,000 Mexicans are in United States illegally
  - 1929-1936 - Mexican “Repatriation Act” forces Mexican immigrants in the United States back to Mexico
  - June 29, 1940 - Alien Registration Act seeks to undermine left-wing political groups by registering 4,741,971 immigrants
  - October 14, 1940 - Nationality Act unifies nationality and naturalization laws
  - February 19, 1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 sending tens of thousands of Japanese Americans (among others) to internment camps
  - 1942-1945 - U.S. government sends almost 900 Native Alaskans to internment camps
  - 1943-1944 - U.S. Supreme Court iustifies Executive Order 9066 in Hirabayashi v. The United States and Korematsu v. The United States
  - 1943 - Bracero Program brings 5,000,000 Mexican temporary laborers to work in U.S. farms and railroads over a 22-year period
  - December 17, 1943 - Magnuson Immigration Act of 1943 allows Chinese to become U.S. citizens
  - 1945 - War Brides and Fiancées Acts allow an estimated 1,000,000 American soldiers to bring their foreign spouses to America
  - August 9, 1946 - Asian Exclusion Repeal Act gives naturalization rights to Filipinos and Indians
  - 1948 - Displaced Persons Act allows people uprooted by World War II to immigrate to United States
- 1950-1999
  - 1952 - McCarran-Walter Immigration Act organizes all immigration statutes into one body of law
  - November 1954 - Ellis Island closes
  - 1964 - Bracero Program ends; Laborers continue to arrive from Mexico
  - 1965 - Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act abolishes immigration criteria based on nation of origin and race
  - October 24, 1968 - Armed Forces Naturalization Act allows veterans who served active-duty to become naturalized citizens
  - May 23, 1975 - Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act admits displaced Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians
  - 1976 - President Gerald Ford repeals Executive Order 9066 proclaiming WWII Japanese relocation a “national mistake”
  - 1980 - Census estimates 2 to 4 million immigrants in the United States illegally with about half from Mexico
  - 1980 - Cuba allows 125,000 Cubans to illegally depart for the United States
  - 1980 - Refugee Act of 1980 allows persecuted individuals to seek asylum in United States
  - June 15, 1982 - Plyler v. Doe overturns Texas law disallowing state funds for non-citizens
  - October 22, 1982 - Amerasian Immigration Act gives preferential immigration status to children fathered by American troops in southeast Asia
  - 1986 - Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) grants legal status to qualifying immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally before January 1, 1982
  - December 1987 - Amerasian Homecoming Act allows children fathered by American troops in Vietnam to immigrate to the United States
  - November 29, 1990 - Immigration Act of 1990 increases limit on legal immigration and revises grounds for exclusion and deportation
  - October 1, 1991 - Armed Forces Immigration Adjustment Act gives special immigration status to foreign veterans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces
  - 1994 - First detailed national count of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Estimates 3.4 Million Immigrants in United States Illegally
  - November 8, 1994 - California’s Proposition 187 is approved by voters (and later rejected by U.S. district court)
  - April 24, 1996 - Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act tightens immigration to protect against terrorism
  - August 22, 1996 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act denies most forms of public assistance to most immigrants without legal status
  - September 30, 1996 - Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act allows some 300,000 central Americans to become legal residents
- 2000-present
  - February 16, 2000 - AFL-CIO labor union supports amnesty for immigrants without legal status
  - November 9, 2000 - Bring Them Home Alive Act grants refugee status to foreigners who return living Vietnam or Korean War POWs or MIAs
  - December 21, 2000 - Section 245(i) of the Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE) Act grants legalization to iualifying immigrants without legal status
  - August 1, 2001 - U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduces the DREAM Act
  - May 14, 2002 - Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act updates immigration databases and travel document requirements
  - October 1, 2004 - “Minuteman Project” begins recruiting civilians to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border
  - May 11, 2005 - REAL ID Act expands laws for asylum and deportation of foreigners for terrorist activity
  - June 15, 2012 - Obama announces DACA
  - March 7, 2013 - Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act adds immigrants to crotected Classes
  - November 20, 2014 - President Obama announced executive action to prevent deportation of millions of immigrants without legal status
  - June 23, 2016 - Supreme Court deadlocked in 4-4 vote on challenge to Obama’s immigration executive actions
  - September 5, 2017 - Trump administration announces end to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program
  - February 27, 2018 - U.S. Supreme Court rules immigrants without legal status can be detained indefinitely
  - December 12, 2019 - American Samoans ruled U.S. Citizens by birth
  - June 18, 2020 - Supreme Court blocks effort to end DACA
  - December 1, 2020 - Trump administration updates citizenship test
  - December 4, 2020 - Federal Judge orders DACA restoration
  - January 20, 2021 - Biden orders Census Bureau to count all residents, including immigrants without legal status
  - January 20, 2021 - Biden extends DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) protections
  - July 16, 2021 - Federal judge rules DACA illegal
  - May 3, 2024 - December 23, 2024 - DACA recipients declared eligible, then ineligible, for Obamacare
  - June 17, 2024 - Biden moves to protect undocumented spouses of U.S. Citizens
  - January 17, 2025 - DACA ruled unlawful again
  - June 11, 2025 - Department of Justice to prioritize denaturalization cases
Assessment quiz
1-minute survey
Discussion questions
Sources

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

U.S. immigration

Statue of Liberty

Illustration of immigrant passengers from various backgrounds standing on a ship's deck, gazing toward the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

Historic black-and-white photo of a group of Chinese American railroad workers, some wearing hats, who contributed to building the Transcontinental Railroad.

Davies Garcia, an 11-year-old boy, holds a small American flag and raises his hand during a naturalization ceremony in a crowded auditorium.

Madeleine Albright

Immigration: References & Edit History

Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

The Editors of ProCon
ProCon's editors write and verify new content and update existing content. ProCon presents the pro and con arguments to debatable issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, freely accessible way.

Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors

Article History

Type	Description	Contributor	Date
	Discussion questions standardized.	The Editors of ProCon	Jul 23, 2026
	Photo added.	The Editors of ProCon	Feb 04, 2026
	Link fixed.	The Editors of ProCon	Sep 02, 2025
	Text, sources, and video added.	The Editors of ProCon	Sep 02, 2025
	Cross-reference added.	Tara Ramanathan	Aug 14, 2025
	March 15 - July 2, 2025 timeline entries added; reformatting; text editing	The Editors of ProCon	Jul 11, 2025
	Quiz added.	The Editors of ProCon	Jun 05, 2025
	Text clarified.	The Editors of ProCon	Jun 04, 2025
	Revision to thesis in con 3.	The Editors of ProCon	Jun 03, 2025
	Links added.	The Editors of ProCon	May 30, 2025
	Typo correction.	The Editors of ProCon	May 28, 2025
	History expanded, footnotes added.	The Editors of ProCon	May 27, 2025
	Survey added.	The Editors of ProCon	Apr 18, 2025
	Trump's executive order making English the official US language added to timeline	The Editors of ProCon	Mar 03, 2025
	Timeline updated with January 22 and February 2025 entries.	The Editors of ProCon	Feb 20, 2025
	Link added.	The Editors of ProCon	Feb 12, 2025
	Invalidated site: National Archives - History of the Certificate of Citizenship, 1790�1956.	Emily Rodriguez	Feb 06, 2025
	Correction to number of states that allow licenses.	The Editors of ProCon	Jan 24, 2025
	Text updated; links added.	The Editors of ProCon	Jan 24, 2025
	Updates to intro and timeline.	The Editors of ProCon	Jan 21, 2025
	Question edited for space	The Editors of ProCon	Jan 06, 2025
	Links added, text clarified.	The Editors of ProCon	Jan 05, 2025
	Add new Web site: National Archives - History of the Certificate of Citizenship, 1790�1956.	Grace Young	Dec 21, 2024
	New article added.	The Editors of ProCon	Nov 08, 2024