United States Immigration Law

The US is said to be the land of immigrants. People all around the world have migrated to the USA in search of peace and prosperity throughout the ages. The American authority is very much concerned about the significant issue of immigration to the US and particularly the 9/11 has evolved the country's security policy and United States immigration laws to a more stringent level of operation. In this context, it's worthy to have a brief overview of the important laws of immigration in the USA.

The Naturalization Act (1790) had established the rules for naturalized citizenship [as per Article 1(8) of the Constitution of the USA].

The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) was the first and sole race-based immigration act in the USA.

The Immigration Act (1924) was enacted to restrict the ethnic distribution in response to rising immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, and Asia.

By the National Origins Formula of (1929) , total annual immigration to the USA was capped at 150,000. Asians were excluded but foreign residents in the Americas were not restricted.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (or McCarran-Walter Act) of 1952 liberalized immigration from Asia, but increased the power of the government to deport illegal immigrants (mainly suspects as Communist sympathizers).

The Immigration Act (1965) stopped quotas based on national origin, while those who had US relatives were given preference. Mexican immigration was restricted for the first time.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986) forgave those illegal immigrants who had been living in the United States before 1982 but hired another illegal immigrant.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (1996) implemented drastic changes to asylum law, criminal-based immigration, and to many forms of immigration relief.

The Real ID Act (2005) had restricted political asylum more, curtailed habeas corpus relief for immigrants, increased immigration enforcement mechanisms, changed judicial review, and imposed federal restrictions on the issuance of state driver's licenses to immigrants and others.

The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (2005) called for fencing (of 1120 km) the US-Mexican border to check massive scale of illegal immigrant crossings, besides asking the federal government to take custody of illegal aliens detained by local authorities.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA) of 2006 deals with immigration reform. It proposes to increase security along the US-Mexico border, allows long-time illegal immigrants to gain citizenship with some restrictions, and increases the number of guest workers in the US beside those already present through a new "blue card" visa program.

In December 2005 , the US House of Representatives passed legislation introduced by Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth (South Dakota) and Congressman Bob Goodlatte (Virginia) to add amendment to the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act to abolish the immigration lottery system.

Besides the main acts, there have been otheracts of legislation related to immigration and naturalization in the US. Like: