Immigration Law Between 1800 And 1875 Essay

Between 1800 and 1875, immigration laws were regulated and enforced at the state level. However, in 1875, Congress began to regulate some aspects of national immigration law. Despite the country’s origin as a nation allegedly built by immigrants for immigrants in order to foster economic opportunities for all people, the elected politicians were very selective about the nationalities of the immigrants who were accepted, and about their social standing. The earlier laws made it possible for immigration officials to refuse entry to the country to people of social classes that were deemed unfit, including lunatics, idiots, the insane, prostitutes, and paupers. Additionally, following the assassination of President McKinley in 1882, Congress made legal the discrimination against any non-citizens based on their race or their ideology. These early immigration laws were highly biased against huge numbers of people with physical and mental disabilities, people of diverse religions, social …show more content…
These restrictions were based on the country of origin of the applicants, as well as race and religion. As the United States began to expand economically, the federal government retained its power to restrict the number of new immigrants admitted each year, but delegated a great deal of power to individual employers and families to decide who was and was not fit for American citizenship by qualitative criteria. These criteria for acceptance included English language skills, potential for contribution to the labor market, and nation of origin. Employers even had the power to recommend immigrants for deportation. Family members of applicants had the opportunity to sponsor their family members and petition on their behalf in order to assist their efforts; sponsorship and advocacy were often the deciding factors in many applications to the federal