Migrations into the United States have been a part of the history of the country for a long time. There have been many laws that would restrict the access of immigrants coming to the United States; however, immigrant’s desire to start a new life does not let the new laws stop them. Immigration policies have changed throughout the late 1800’s, through the 1900’s and into the 2000’s and many people in the United States have had mixed feelings towards it. Although the country had not focused on immigration as heavily as it does now, in 1875 the Supreme Court declared immigrations as a federal issue. This was the start of numerous policies that would hinder the amount of people that were allowed in the States.
Immigration has been a part of the history of the United States for centuries and it first started rising problems in the 1800’s. According to the Congressional Budget Office of the United States, The United States established the Immigration Service in 1891 to begin to regulate the amount of people that are to enter the United States. During this time, immigrants had come from mostly Europe and Asia and the population mostly consisted of Irishmen and Chinese people. The immigrants coming to the United States were in the thousands and the federal government had to reduce these numbers in order to prevent unwanted people from coming in.
“The general Immigration Act of 1882 levied a head tax of fifty cents on each immigrant and blocked (or excluded) the entry of idiots, lunatics, convicts, and persons likely to become a public charge.” (U.S Citizen and Immigration Services). This was the one of the first actions done by the federal government in order to reduce the entry of unwanted immigrants.
This Immigration Act, or known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, was also the first policy put into place to counter one single nationality during the time. It was targeted towards Chinese immigrants and made the process of naturalization much harder for the ones already in the United States. Although the Chinese community protested for such discriminating policies, the United States refused to change its laws. The policy, According to Britannica, “significantly decreased the number of Chinese immigrants into the United States and forbade those who left to return. According to the U.S. national census in 1880, there were 105,465 Chinese in the United States, compared with 89,863 by 1900 and 61,639 by 1920”. This reduced almost half of the incoming population of Chinese immigrants. Although the United States believed they were doing the right thing, this heavily impacted the Chinese community. It caused more discrimination towards Asians as well as separated and ruined families, which could no longer come to the United States.
The government continued to face problems with other nationalities into the 20th century. Speculations on whether the policies implemented were effective, gave rise to new and more complicated laws. The Immigration Act of 1917 introduced more rules and regulations towards immigrants trying to get into the country. According to the United States Citizen and Immigration Services “Among its other provisions, the 1917 Act required that immigrants be able to read and write in their native language, obligating the Immigration Service to begin administering literacy tests.” These literacy tests were used to test whether or not the immigrants were able to read in their own language. If not, then it would prove that they were illiterate and had not had a proper education. These immigrants would then be sent back to their native country.
Another example of immigration restriction in the United States was with the National Origins Quota Act of 1921 and 1924. This act excluded Asian immigrants while it also “distributed a limited number of visas each year through U.S. Embassies abroad and the Immigration Service only admitted immigrants who arrived with a valid visa.” (USCIS). The government had realized that the literacy test was not enough to reduce a big portion of immigrants coming to the United States. They had also realized that as they implemented restrictions on people entering the country, it created new ways for them to come illegally. People rather come to the United States undetected, than go through a severe investigation that could possibly last months. In response to this, the government created the United States Border Patrol in 1924 that would introduce more resources into fighting illegal immigration.
The era of Barack Obama’s presidency brought much reform to the Immigration Policies in the United States. One of the bigger policies implemented by the president was the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). “DACA is a program that allows individuals who were brought to the United States as children to receive relief from being deported for a period of time if they meet certain criteria” (Ballotpedia) and “DAPA proposed delaying the deportation of parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and providing them with work permits, as long as they were in the United States since January 1, 2010, and did not pose a threat to national security or public safety.” (Ballotpedia). These were the few policies that were created to help immigrants maintain their right to stay within the country as long as they met certain criteria. This prevented children from being torn apart from their families and allowed new people to gain residency in the United States. However, most of these policies would then be intervened and destroyed with the elected president of the United States, Donald Trump who was strictly opposing immigration in his presidential campaign.