The Statue of Liberty was a symbol of welcome for many immigrants coming to America.Despite the United State's icon status of potential freedom to immigrants in the past, restrictions have always existed to maintain whatever the policy was of the country at the time. Here are some examples of important immigration legislation:
-1795 Naturalization Act (citizens are free whites who have lived here for five years and owe allegiance to no other country)
-1798 Naturalization Act (immigrants must live here for 14 years to become citizens-the requirement was reduced in 1805)
-1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (makes about 80,000 Mexicans living in the Southwest American citizens)
-1870 Naturalization Act (prohibits Asian Americans from becoming U.S. citizens)
-1882 Chinese Exclusion Act (restricts Chinese immigration)
-1921 Quota Act (limits European immigration to 3% the number of their nationality group in the United States in 1910)
-1944 Korematsu v. United States (Supreme Court rules that putting Japanese Americans in internment camps as constitutional)
What does this say about our country? Are we really willing and open to immigrants like some history books paint? The answer based on these laws is no; the United States has a long history of mistreating immigrants. Does that make it right? Of course not.
Information received here:http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/immigration_chron.cfm
Picture link here:http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ellis-island/statue-liberty.jpg
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