History of Immigration Policy in America
More than any other nation on Earth, America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave
of immigrants. … Bearing different memories, honoring different heritages, they have strengthened our
economy, enriched our culture, renewed our promise of freedom and opportunity for all.
– President Clinton at Portland State University Commencement on June 13, 1998
1864 Immigration Act: Appointed a Commissioner of Immigration.
1875 Immigration Act: Barred Chinese contract laborers, criminals, and
prostitutes from entering the country.
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act: Suspended immigration of Chinese workers.
1891 Immigration Act: First comprehensive national immigration law.
Created a Bureau of Immigration within the Treasury Department and called
for the deportation of immigrants who entered illegally.
1917 Immigration Act: Excluded most immigrants from Asia (the Act
outlined an “Asiatic barred zone”) and immigrants with contagious diseases.
Required that immigrants take a literacy test.
Source: UCLA School of Music
George and Ira Gershwin, sons of
Russian Jewish immigrants, in a 1936
photo.
1921 Quota Law: Instated an immigration cap of 350,000 per year,
restricting immigration from any country to 3% of the number of people of that ancestry living in the U.S. as of
1910. This law favored Northwest Europeans.
1924 National Origins Act: Restricted the number of immigrants allowed per year to 165,000, and reduced the
country cap to 2% of the number of people of that ancestry in the U.S. in 1890.
1965 Immigration Act: Eliminated the national origins quota system.
1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act: Granted legalization to undocumented immigrants who arrived
before January 1, 1982 and who had lived in the United States continuously since then. Provided more funding for
border enforcement and created sanctions against employers who hired undocumented immigrants.
1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act: Expanded the crimes for which legal
permanent residents could be deported, and established three-year and ten-year bars to reentry for undocumented
immigrants found residing in the United States. Changed welfare laws so that most legal permanent residents
became ineligible for Medicaid for five years after receiving their green cards, and ineligible for Medicare and Social
Security for ten years.
2002-2006 The Department of Homeland Security created a special registration system for foreign-born
Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians (2002); the REAL ID Act required applicants for a driver’s license to show proof
of citizenship or legal status (2005); the Secure Fence Act implemented the construction of a 670-mile fence at a
projected cost of $49 billion (2006).
2008: Executive Order by the President required federal contractors to use an employee verification system that
checks an employee’s immigration status (“E-Verify”), operated by the Department of Homeland Security. The start
date on which federal contractors are required to use the system has been delayed until September 2009.
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Immigrants in America Today
There are 38.1 million foreign-born living in the United States. Immigrants make up about 13% of the
population, 15% of the labor force, and nearly 5% of the armed forces.
Top Six Countries of Origin
Education
Mexico: 11.7 million
China: 1.9 million
Philippines: 1.7 million
India: 1.5 million
El Salvador and Vietnam: 1.1 million each
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Sources: This Box: U.S. Census Bureau 2007 American Community Survey.
Above: Ibid. and Batalova, Jeanne. “Immigrants in the US Armed Forces.”
Migration Policy Institute, 2008.
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Approximately 25% of immigrant workers are
college graduates, while nearly 30% are high
school dropouts.
Foreign-born students earn 40% of the Ph.D.s
in science and engineering, and 65% of the
computer science Ph.D.s granted in the U.S.
Sources: Harry Holzer, Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives, 2005 and
Alden, Edward. “Wanted: A Smarter Immigration Policy.” The Wall Street Journal, 2009.
There are 11.9 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. They comprise 30% of the
nation’s foreign-born population, 4% of the total population, and 5.4% of the workforce.
8.3 million undocumented immigrants are in the U.S. labor force.
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Undocumented Workers by Occupation
25% of farm workers
19% of building, groundskeeping, and maintenance workers
17% of construction workers
12% of food preparation and serving workers
Source: Passel, Jeffrey and Cohn, D’Vera. “A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States.” Pew
Hispanic Center, 2009
“For a 25-year-old Mexican male with nine years of education
(slightly above the national average), migrating to the U.S. would
increase his wage from $2.30 to $8.50 an hour”
– Gordon Hanson, “The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration.” Special
Report for the Council on Foreign Relations, 2007.
Mixed-Status Families:
8.8 million people in the U.S. are in mixed-status
families, usually consisting of U.S. citizen children and
undocumented parents.
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73% of children with an undocumented parent
are US citizens.
2.7 million U.S. citizen children had an
undocumented parent in 2003. That number
rose to 4 million in 2008 (see graph).
49% of undocumented immigrants ages 18-24
who graduated from high school are in college
or have attended college in the U.S.
Source: Passel, Jeffrey and Cohn, D’Vera. “A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the
United States.” Pew Hispanic Center, 2009
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