A peep into the history of laws affecting immigration in the United States.

Immigration is different from naturalization. For the first century of the United States' past, immigration to the country was unobstructed. Any person could shift to the United States, begin a new life, pay taxes, get involved in military service and carry out business. However, while the United States had an "open-borders" approach for the first century of its presence, it had extremely precise naturalization laws from the early years of its existence. Anyone who sought to vote or hold elective office had to be accepted. That is, anyone could come in, but only those who faced through the naturalization process and became a citizen could vote or possess elective office.

18^th century

Today, it is necessary for a person to consult a reputed immigration law firm in London before applying for US immigration. The United States Constitution was accepted on September 17, 1787. Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the Constitution expressly allows the United States Congress the authority to set up a uniform rule of naturalization.

In continuity to this power, Congress in 1790 release the first naturalization law for the United States, the Naturalization Act of 1790. The law allows people who had lived in the country for two years and had kept their existing level of residence for a year to apply for citizenship. However, it limited naturalization to "free white persons" of "fare moral character".

19^th century

The Naturalization Law of 1802 cancelled and substituted the Naturalization Act of 1798.

The Fourteenth Amendment, rested on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, was cleared in 1868 to award citizenship for former slaves. The 1866 Act mentions, "That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any early condition of slavery or involuntary servitude" shall possess the same rights "as is relished by white people." The expression in the Fourteenth Amendment upturned the provisional clause to read: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." This was brought in force by the Supreme Court in the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark to associate with the child of Chinese citizens who were lawfully occupant in the U.S. at the time of his birth, with exclusions such as for the children of diplomats and American Indians.

21^st century

Following the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, there was a lot of pressure on an immigration law firm in London. A total of 20 foreign terrorists carried out this heinous attack, 19 of whom involved in the attacks that results into the deaths of 2,977 victims, most of them civilians. The terrorists had seeped in the United States on tourist or student visas. Four of them, however, had dishonoured the terms of their visas. The attack uncovered long-enduring weaknesses in the U.S. immigration system that comprised failures in the fields of visa processing, internal enforcement, and information sharing.

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Created on Apr 24th 2019 02:27. Viewed 377 times.

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