U.S. Border Policy Timeline

These acts introduced the concept of deportation and allowed for the deportation of those who were decided to be "dangerous to the safety and security of the United States."

This act restricted the immigration of East Asian women.

This act barred all Chinese immigrants from entry into the United States.

This act helped establish federal regulations that dictated who was welcome to immigrate to the U.S.

The U.S. Immigration Service began to irregularly send out inspectors to patrol the border, particularly looking for illegal Chinese immigrants.

This act required that immigrants learn English in order to become citizens of the United States.

This immigration processing and detention center's primary goal was to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act. The same site was also later used as a Japanese internment camp.

This act, also sometimes know as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, imposed restrictions on immigration based on literacy and country of origin.

This act set limits for the number of immigrants allowed from each country per year.

The first act made that was had refugees in mind. In this case, it was in reference to those who lost their homes in the Second World War from southern and eastern Europe. The Act was temporary and expired in 1952, after allowing around 400,000 refugees to enter the country.

This act amended the 1917 act and allowed for the government to purchase and maintain detention facilities.

This act removed the geographic restrictions of those who may enter, therefore lifting the refugee focus from Europe, and allowing more people of color a chance to immigrate.

This act defines a refugee as someone with a “well-founded fear of persecution,”. This lays a constraint on those who are displaced, as they must fit a specific description of this in order to be granted asylum.

Also known as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act the Immigration Reform and Control Act, this act began the use of a citizenship test for undocumented residents. The act also granted amnesty to 3,000,000 undocumented residents.

This act introduced diversity immigrant visas and changed the ways that employment impacted immigration status.

This is a strategy against illegal immigration on the US- Mexico border. There is more information about Prevention Through Deterrence below.

This act, signed into law in response to 9/11, allows for indefinite detention of non-citizens.

This policy allowed gave undocumented residents who entered the country as minors a work status and allowed for some undocumented children to avoid deportation, but not permanently.

This policy dictates that all who are caught crossing the border are sent to the department of justice and prosecuted for illegal entry. Adults are imprisoned and children are sent to foster care. This policy was later slightly amended with regard to family separation.

In response to an influx of refugees from Central America, ICE converted a civil detention center to an immigrant family detention center.

There have been multiple proposed changes. One of the most significant is the possibility of opening a pathway for unauthorized immigrants to gain legal status.