A historical overview of the United State’s immigration laws

Immigration is quite distinctive from naturalization. For the first century of the United States’ past, immigration to the country was found to be unhindered. Any individual could shift to the United States, start a new life, pay taxes, get indulged into military service and run business. However, while the United States had an open-borders; method for the first century of its presence, it had very precise naturalization laws from the early years of its presence. Anyone who was discovered to vote or hold elective office had to be embraced. That is, anyone could come in, but only those who encountered through the naturalization process and became a citizen could vote or possess elective office.

18^thcentury

At present, it is almost mandatory for a person to consult a reputed immigration law firm in London before applying for US immigration. The United States Constitution was approved and accepted on September 17, 1787. Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the Constitution specifically enables the United States Congress the power to define a uniform rule of naturalization.

In steadiness to this power, Congress in 1790 release the first naturalization law for the United States, the Naturalization Act of 1790. The law permitted individuals who had lived in the country for two years and had kept their existing standard of residence for a year to apply for citizenship. However, it restricted

naturalization to free white persons; off are moral character.

19th century

The Naturalization Law of 1802 rebutted and replaced the Naturalization Act of 1798.The Fourteenth Amendment, based on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, was passed in 1868 to give 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 temporary 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 action 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

Just after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, there was huge pressure on an immigration law firm in London. A total of 20 foreign terrorists performed this devastating 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 dishonored the terms of their visas. The attack exposed long-enduring faintness in the U.S. immigration system that comprised failures in the areas of visa processing, internal enforcement, and information sharing.