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The San Diego Union Tribune, August 22, 1999
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
It has been largely viewed as racist legislation. With Chinese laborers arriving in western states in larger numbers during the 19th century, native-born workers there began complaining about the Chinese workers' impact on lowering their wages.
Immigration Act of 1891
The nation' s first comprehensive immigration law, it established the Bureau of Immigration within the Treasury Department. Today the agency is known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service and is part of the Justice Department.
Immigration Act of 1924
After four decades of high immigration beginning in 1880, a period known as the Great Wave, Congress established the first numerical limits on immigration and created a system of quotas for immigrants based on national origins. The idea behind the law was to rein in immigration and keep the flow substantially European.
Bracero Program of 1943
Prompted by labor shortages during World War II, Congress created a guest-worker program allowing temporary agricultural workers into the United States from Mexico to help in the fields. The program ended in 1964.
Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965
This law repealed the system of quotas based on national origins in an effort to make the selection of immigrants fairer. It removed the "cap" on the number of spouses, minor children, and parents of U.S. citizens who could enter the country each year. It established an eligibility system based on "family reunification" and employment skills.
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
This attempted to curtail illegal immigration through a system of fines for employers who deliberately hire undocumented workers. The effort has largely failed for lack of enforcement, and illegal immigration continues. The law also granted amnesty to 2.7 million people living in the country illegally. The amnestied immigrants became eligible for citizenship over the past four years, causing a huge surge in naturalization backlogs. As citizens, they may bring in all immediate relatives without any wait and without numerical limits, further increasing immigration.
Immigration Act of 1990
Based on the flawed assumption that the "back door" of illegal immigration had been shut through the 1986 act, Congress proceeded to further open the "front door" of legal immigration by tripling the numerical limits for employment-based immigration and substantially easing limits on family-based immigration.
Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
Along with the welfare reform act of the same year, this immigration legislation greatly scaled back the eligibility of legal immigrants for an array of federal benefits, including food stamps and welfare payments. It also expedited the deportation of illegal immigrants and those convicted of crimes. Congress later rolled back some of the benefit restrictions. To cut down on the number of impoverished immigrants sponsoring poor family members for immigration, the act disqualified people earning less than 125 percent of the poverty level from serving as sponsors of immigrants.
Source: Copley News Service