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The history of naturalization law in the United States dates back to March 26, 1790 when the Naturalization Act was passed. During that time, naturalization was restricted to "free white persons" of "good moral character" residing in the country for two years and their current state of residence for a year. This period of residence was further increased to 5 years residence and 3 years notice of intent in 1795 and again to 14 years residence and 5 years notice of intent in 1798.
The immigration act underwent a sea change in 1882 after more than half a million Chinese immigration between the periods of 1850 to 1880 put the entire act of immigration in notice. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, which restricted further Chinese immigration to the country. Though initially imposed as a temporary act, it underwent a series of relaxations and conditions after which it was permanently enforced in 1904. A law was also passed in the year 1882 by the US Congress that banned the entry of people lacking education or sound health. A literacy requirement was added in Immigration Act of 1917.
The Emergency Quota Act was passed in the year 192, where quotas, based on the number of foreign-born residents of each nationality residing in the United States as of 1910 census, were established on immigration. This act was further toughened in 1924 when the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act set a ceiling for immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere. The McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 further revised the quotas, not only fixing them on the 1920 census, but omitting racial distinctions for the first time in the history of the United States.
The Hart-Cellar Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 brought about radical reforms in US’s immigration laws by abolishing the system of national-origin quotas. By this act, a limitation on immigration from the West was set at 120,000 per year, while immigration from East was limited to 170,000. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was passed in 1986, under which employers knowingly hiring illegal immigrants were made liable to penalization.
The marked increase in terrorist activities has brought about a sea change in current immigration laws in the United States. Today, several harsher legislations have been passed for both legal and illegal immigrants. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) have vastly increased the categories of criminal activity for which immigrants are made liable to deportation.
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