The California Alien Land Law (1913)

Around the mid-19th to the 20th century, myriads of immigrants flocked to the U.S. seeking better job opportunities,or searching for religious freedom. U.S. citizens were fearful, envious, and willing to exclude immigrants who came to the US as they were viewed as an economic threat to the society. They believed that these immigrants were racially, morally and intellectually inferior to them and as such did not see or treat as their equals. These dysfunctions lead to severe and harsh treatment of immigrants. Historically, the three major immigrant groups that faced the most discrimination during this era were the Asians, German, and the Irish. American citizen’s fear of job secureness led to the resentment and discriminatory treatment towards Asian Immigrants. They believed that the majority of the Asian American immigrants were taking too many of their jobs. As such, the U.S. government decided that it would be necessary to restrict the amount of Asian Americans, in order to keep the U.S. citizens from being unemployed. The U.S. government passed numerous laws, banning Asian American immigrants from the United States. One distinct law that they passed was the 1922 Cable Act, this law “stripped a female citizen of citizenship, if she married an alien unable to become a citizen.”(Lutz 7).The law was basically passed to prevent Asian immigrants from obtaining citizenship by marrying a female U.S citizen.In fact, the government believed that female citizens that engaged in this

In 1798 the U.S Congress and the president John Adams passed the alien and sedition acts. The acts restricted freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The acts also gave the power to deport someone or race out of the country. It gave more power to the federal government taking away state powers. Many people said that the acts were unconstitutional but others did not.I believe that the acts violated the constitution and this is why.

Then there was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred certain laborers from migrating to the United States. Between 1885 and 1887 the Alien Contract Labor also, prohibited specific laborers from immigrating to the US. In 1891 the Federal Government took on the duty of admitting, inspecting, rejecting, and processing all immigrant in search of admission to the United States. On January 2, 1892, a Federal US immigration station opened on Ellis Island in New York Harbor. In 1903 a reaffirmed provisions that were in the 1891Act. The US immigration Act of 1907, reorganized the states bordering Mexico that includes Arizona, New Mexico and a large part of Texas. Between 1917 and 1924 there were a series of laws were ratified to limit the number of new aliens. These laws established the quota system and forced passport requirements. They also expanded the categories of excludable aliens and banned all Asians except the Japanese. A 1924 Act was created to reduced the number of US immigration visas and allocated them on the foundation of national origin. In 1940 The Alien Registration Act required all non-U.S. citizens within the United States to register with the Government and receive an Alien Registration Receipt Card, which was later called a Green Card. The Passage of the Internal Security Act of 1950 depicted the Alien Registration Receipt Card even more

In recent history, many Americans have had a growing concern for the immigration (both legal and illegal) growth in our country. While the United States of America was settled by European immigrants, the unprecedented growth the late 1800s saw, led to reform on the immigration policy, which once was nonexistent. Based on conditions floods of immigrants caused in the cities of the country, the immigration reform was needed. Not only were the lives of immigrants negatively impacted in the United States, but so were previously settled Americans.

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, and Alien Contract Labor Laws of 1885 and 1887 prohibited certain laborers from immigrating to the United States. " Immigration Act of 1882 levied a head tax of fifty cents on each

One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

The 1780’s and 1790’s were a time of growing contentions in America, and were capped off with the creation of the Alien and Sedition acts. The Alien and Sedition acts included four laws that made it extremely difficult to be an immigrant in the United States. These laws allowed the president to deport any immigrant he deemed dangerous or suspicious, allowed the government to remove immigrants in time of war and also required that any immigrant live in the US for fourteen years before they could be given citizenship. The fourth act infringed on the right to free speech, which is a fundamental right given by the constitution, by prohibiting any conspiracy or “scandalous and malicious” writings against the United States government. The four acts were the government’s response to the growing issues in the America. These issues included the division of the government into political parties, the American people’s growing distrust of foreign nations, and the distrust between people within America.

On March 26, 1790 a law was passed by the name of, Naturalization Act of the United States. It always makes me think, where would we be today if that law did not pass. The naturalization act of 1790 provided the first rules to be followed by all of the United States in the granting of national citizenship. After many different ethnic groups such as Latino Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans came to the United States it really raised a question. How did this law change how the groups are identified and their differences? Latino Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans have differences in many ways but also have similarities. There 's many different unique contexts used in separating these groups and how labor legislation was used. The year 1970 is often known to be the largest turning point in the history of US immigration. The law limited naturalization to immigrants who were "free white persons" of "good moral character". That being said, The Naturalization act of The United States who granted citizenship to immigrants that faced many barriers are restrictions to the American Law and the many cultural difference caused many challenges throughout the journey process after the Naturalization Act was a success for many groups.

After the end of World War I in 1919, a group of thirty Japanese settled in San Joaquin Valley, California making their ethnic community in Cortez. Despite the Alien Land Law of 1913, which

In 1924 the U.S. passed the National Origin Act which restricted the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans and practically excluded immigration from Japan into the United States all together.

“Race is always historically specific” (7). This quote summarizes a major argument in Mae Ngai’s book, Impossible Subjects. Ngai argues that since the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, race and immigration are closely tied together in the United States. This act solidified the category of the illegal alien and this group of people have since become a major concern for leaders of the government. Mae Ngai goes in-depth about how the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 impacted American immigration policies until it was replaced by the Immigration Act of 1965. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 greatly impacted the plight of racial and ethnic minorities and Ngai clearly depicts each of the many instances throughout her book. Some of the groups that became disenfranchised where Filipino immigrants during the 1920 and ‘30s and Japanese immigrants during World War II.

Starting from around 1891, Japanese migrants began making their way to the United States for work; however, the Alien Land Law prevented all “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land in 1913. The buildup of Japanese immigrants into America continued until 1924 when no more Japanese could legally migrate to the U.S.. Prior to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Munson began investigating the loyalty of Japanese-American and provided a report to the President just one month before the attack. After Pearl Harbor, signed Executive Order 9066 into law which put all of California, and parts of Oregon and Washington into a militarized zone. This law allowed military personnel to exclude all persons who pose a threat to national security. Although there were some racist and prejudice ruling used by the law, this executive order was motivated mostly by national security.

The Act of 1885 blocked the immigration of aliens under contract to labor. The Acts of 1891 and 1903 made a number of further additions to the excluded classes (such as anarchists, polygamists, and

Therefore, around 1851 the miner’s tax fee was repealed, but soon took effect again to get rid of more Spanish-speaking people from the mines. The gold miners included Spanish workers, were met with discrimination and racism from Anglos as they were taunted, beaten, a killed for their riches. Anglos thought that they deserve the right to first own the gold mines due to their thinking that the Southwest was now U.S. soil and all the mineral wealth belong to them. Vigilante Anglo groups violently threaten the Spanish-speaking people, including people who were Americans, but they were ignored, because they were discriminated for their dark skin color. The Land Act of 1851, was made to clarify land rights regardless of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This was made an attempt from Californios, due to the rise of violence from the movement of Anglos to the Southwest. When there was a lack of gold shortage, farm squatters became common especially Anglos farmers who sought out rich lands from Californios. Many Anglos politicians or rich folks sought

The immigration act of 1924 was really the first permanent limitation on immigration. This limitation was like a quota system that only aloud two percent instead of the three percent of each foreign born group living in the United states in 1890. Like it say in Document A “Under the act of 1924 the number of each nationality who may be admitted annually is limited to two per cent of the population of such nationality resident in the United States according to the census of 1890.” Using the 1890 census instead of newer up-to-date ones they excluded a lot of new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe that came by in resent years (This is shown awfully well in Document B). This acts annual quota changed from 358,000 in 1921 to 164,000