Immigrant Medicine Elective BCM

Time Line for the Politics of Immigration – Immigrant Medicine Elective BCM

•1776- Declaration of Independence

•1795- Naturalization Act: all “free white persons” require a 5 year residence and renunciation of former allegiances to obtain U.S. citizenship.

•1808- Slave importation halted

•1839- Bi-lingual instruction in German and English allowed within Pennsylvania public schools.

•1840's- Irish potato famine prompts 80 year era of mass immigration. Failed European revolutions spur migration from Austro-Hungary. Immigrants continue to arrive from Britain.

•1848- Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo: US purchases New Mexico, Arizona ,Colorado, California, Utah, Nevada and Texas from Mexico after close of Mexican-American war ($15 million). Mexican residents can remain but are subject to discrimination.

•1849- California Gold Rush prompts Chinese migration.

•1854- Chinese bared from testifying against whites in California courts.

•1870- Naturalization Act: American citizenship limited to “white persons and persons of African descent.” Asians barred from U.S. citizenship.

•1882- Chinese Exclusion Act: starts a 60 year prohibition against Chinese immigration.

•1880's- Scandinavian migration peaks.

•1890's- Ellis Island processes 12 million immigrants over the next 30 years. Southern European migration peaks.

•1901- President Wm McKinley assassinated by a Polish anarchist. The Anarchist Exclusion Act allows the exclusion of immigrants based on their political opinions.

•1907- Expatriation Act: An American woman who marries any foreign national loses citizenship. Teddy Roosevelt’s Gentlemen’s Agreement halts Japanese immigration.

•1921- Quota Act: European immigration is limited to 3% of the current number of respective foreign nationals currently in the US.

•1922- Cable Act: Partial repeal of Expatriation act. However, an American woman who marries an Asian still loses citizenship.

•1943- Repeal of Chinese Exclusion Act: By the late 1940's the last restrictions on Asians acquiring US citizenship are dropped.

•1954- Operation Wetback: President Eisenhower’s border control program. Cut illegal immigration at the cost of anti-Latino discrimination.

•1965- Immigration and Nationality Act: repealed national origins quota system. Family reunification given priority.

•1980- Refugee Act: granted asylum to politically oppressed immigrants. Enacted in response to Vietnamese refugee crisis.

•1995- Proposition 187: enacted by California Legislature prohibited physicians from providing medical care to illegal aliens. Ultimately repealed as unconstitutional.