|
|
Real ID Act
|
|
5/2/2005
|
|
Establishes stricter standards for State driver's licenses and other identification documents while creating measures to try to prevent terrorists from abusing asylum laws. It also expedites the construction of the San Diego border fence.
|
|
|
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004
|
|
12/6/2004
|
|
A bill implementing many recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Includes a number of provisions related to immigration reform.
|
|
|
|
The USA PATRIOT Act
|
|
11/1/2001
|
|
Overhauled provisions of the immigration code, and implemented other measures intended to combat domestic terrorism. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has extensive resources and analysis on the Act here.
|
|
|
|
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
|
|
9/24/1996
|
|
Vastly expanded the categories of criminal activity for which both documented and undocumented immigrants can be deported.
|
|
|
|
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
|
|
1/1/1986
|
|
Created in order to stop illegal immigration from Mexico, it established financial and other severe penalties for those employing illegal aliens. However, illegal aliens who had already worked and lived in the US since January 1982 were eligible to apply for regularization of status (sometimes referred to as "amnesty") and eventually full citizenship. To enforce the IRCA, the Border Patrol between Mexico and the USA was intensified.
|
|
|
|
Immigration Act of 1965 (also known as the Hart-Celler Act)
|
|
1/1/1965
|
|
Abolished the national-origin quotas that had been in place in the United States since the Immigration Act of 1924. Immigrants were to be admitted by their skills and professions rather than by their nationality.
|
|
|
|
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (also known as the McCarran-Walter Act)
|
|
1/1/1952
|
|
Racial restrictions which previously existed were abolished, but a quota system was retained and the policy of restricting the numbers of immigrants from certain countries was continued. It also allowed the government to deport or bar entrance to immigrants or naturalized citizens engaged in subversive activities.
|
|
|
|
National Origins Formula of 1929
|
|
1/1/1929
|
|
Capped total annual immigration at 150,000. Asians were excluded but residents of nations in the Americas were not restricted.
|
|
|
|
Immigration Act of 1924
|
|
1/1/1924
|
|
This act aimed at restricting Southern and Eastern European immigration, as well as Asian immigration. It limited the number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2 percent of the number of persons from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890.
|
|
|
