FEDERAL Immigration laws

1. The Immigration Act of 1882: This law was one of the earliest immigration laws, which imposed a head tax of fifty cents on each immigrant and blocked (or excluded) certain classes of immigrants, including criminals and the mentally ill.

2. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: This was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. It specifically prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers.

3. The Immigration Act of 1891: This act established the Bureau of Immigration and added more categories of inadmissible persons, including polygamists and those with contagious diseases.

4. The Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act): This law further expanded the list of undesirables banned from entering the U.S., including those from the “Asiatic Barred Zone” except for Japanese and Filipinos.

5. The National Origins Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act): This law established the national origins quota system, designed to maintain the ethnic composition of the United States.

6. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act): Overhauled U.S. immigration law, removing race as an exclusionary criterion, and codified previous immigration law.

7. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act): This significant reform eliminated the national origins quota system, instead basing immigration on family reunification and skills.

8. The Refugee Act of 1980: This law standardized the process for admitting refugees, adjusting the status of refugees to permanent resident status after one year of residence.

9. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA): This act legalized certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants, legalized illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982, and had resided there continuously with penalties, sanctions for employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants, and increased enforcement at U.S. borders.

10. The Immigration Act of 1990: This law revised the preference system for admission of immigrants to the United States, adjusting annual limits and creating a lottery program to encourage immigration from “low admission” countries.

11. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA): This law instituted new penalties on immigration law violations, including restrictions on eligibility for asylum, broadened the classes of inadmissible aliens, and expanded the grounds for deportation.

12. The Homeland Security Act of 2002: Created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and three new agencies—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—took over the functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

13. The REAL ID Act of 2005: Set standards for state driver’s licenses and ID cards that are required for “official purposes” as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.