As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, the U.S. Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA).
Read the full storySeeking to encourage economic development in the new dominion, Canada’s first piece of immigration legislation was designed to attract productive immigrants.
Read the full storyThe capstone of Minister of the Interior Frank Oliver’s immigration policy, the Immigration Act of 1906 consolidated all Canadian immigrant legislation, thus making it easier for “the Department of Immigration to deal with undesirable immigrants.”
Read the full storyA number of orders-in-council and regulations pursuant to the 1906 Immigration Act were further codified in the Immigration Act of 1910, which granted the cabinet wide discretionary power to regulate all areas of immigration.
Read the full storyIn the wake of World War I (1914–18; see World War I and immigration) and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and in the midst of an economic depression, the Canadian government amended its Immigration Act of 1910 to protect against subversive activities and to limit the entry of those who might become involved in them.
Read the full storyThe Immigration Act of 1952 was the first new immigration legislation since 1910.
Read the full storyThe Immigration Act of 1976 marked a significant shift in Canadian immigration policy in limiting the wide discretionary powers of the minister of manpower and immigration.
Read the full storyThe 1864 Immigration Act was designed to increase the flow of laborers to the United States during the disruptions of the Civil War (1861–65).
Read the full storyResponding to dozens of petitions from states worried about the maintenance of indigent immigrants, Congress expanded the exclusion precedent set in the Page Act of 1875.
Read the full storyIn the wake of the assassination of President William McKinley by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901, Congress began a thorough review of American immigration policy.
Read the full storyBoth the general increase in the number of immigrants and the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 fueled a growing nativism in the United States and in Congress during the first decade of the 20th century.
Read the full storyThe Immigration Act of 1917, popularly known as the Literacy Act, marked a turning point in American immigration legislation.
Read the full storyThe Immigration Act of 1990 was the first major revision of U.S. immigration policy since the Immigration and Nationality Act (1965), which had been passed in the midst of the cold war.
Read the full storyU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the investigative arm of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate (BTS), and it operates under the jurisdiction of the DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS).
Read the full storyThe Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1965 marked a dramatic change in American immigration policy, abandoning the concept of national quotas and establishing the basis for extensive immigration from the developing world.
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