The Department of Justice loosened qualification requirements to allow ‘any lawyer’—including approximately 600 military Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers—to serve as immigration judges, bypassing the traditional judicial independence standards and specialized training required for …
Department of JusticeTrumpMilitaryinstitutional-capturejudicial-independenceimmigration-policymilitarizationdue-process
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signs Senate Bill 1070, the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration law in the United States, making it a state misdemeanor for immigrants to be in Arizona without carrying required documents and requiring law enforcement officers to determine immigration status …
Russell PearceJan BrewerCorrections Corporation of AmericaAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)GEO Group+1 moreimmigration-policyalecprivate-prisonscorporate-captureracial-profiling+1 more
President Bill Clinton signs the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), dramatically expanding deportation authority and creating new categories of removable offenses. The law increases annual deportations from approximately 50,000 to over 200,000 by the early 2000s, …
Bill ClintonU.S. CongressImmigration and Naturalization Serviceimmigration-policymass-deportationretroactive-punishmentdue-processexpedited-removal
California voters approve Proposition 187 by 59% to 41%, a ballot initiative that prohibits undocumented immigrants from accessing public services including non-emergency healthcare and primary and secondary education, while requiring public servants such as medical professionals and teachers to …
Pete WilsonCalifornia votersLatino civil rights organizationsACLUimmigration-policyracial-politicsvoter-mobilizationunconstitutionalpolitical-backlash
President Ronald Reagan signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), also known as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, enacting the first federal law to impose sanctions on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers while simultaneously granting amnesty to approximately 3 million undocumented …
Ronald ReaganAlan SimpsonRomano MazzoliU.S. Congressimmigration-policyamnestyemployer-sanctionslabor-exploitationregulatory-failure
The Bracero Program officially ends on December 31, 1964, after labor and civil rights reformers successfully pressure Congress to terminate the 22-year guest worker system. The program’s conclusion comes as mechanization increases in agriculture and mounting evidence exposes systematic …
U.S. CongressUnited Farm WorkersLabor reformersCivil rights organizationsimmigration-policylabor-rightswage-suppressionunion-organizingcorporate-accountability
U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell launches Operation Wetback, a mass deportation initiative using military-style tactics to remove Mexican immigrants. Created by Joseph May Swing, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general heading the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the operation targets …
Dwight D. EisenhowerJoseph May SwingHerbert BrownellImmigration and Naturalization Serviceimmigration-policymass-deportationhuman-rights-violationsmilitarizationracial-profiling
The United States and Mexico sign the Mexican Farm Labor Program agreement, launching the Bracero Program to import temporary agricultural workers during World War II labor shortages. The program, which operates from 1942 to 1964, becomes the largest guest worker program in U.S. history with 4.6 …
U.S. Department of LaborMexican governmentAgricultural employersRailroad companiesimmigration-policylabor-exploitationwage-suppressioncorporate-capturehuman-rights
President Calvin Coolidge signs the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), establishing the first permanent comprehensive restrictions on immigration in American history through a national origins quota system explicitly designed to preserve white racial dominance. The law reduces annual …
Calvin CoolidgeAlbert JohnsonDavid ReedMadison GrantHarry Laughlin+1 moreimmigration-policyracismeugenicsxenophobiainstitutional-capture+1 more
President Warren G. Harding signs the Emergency Quota Act (also called the Emergency Immigration Act or Johnson Quota Act), establishing for the first time numerical limits on immigration to the United States based on national origin. The law restricts annual immigration from any country to 3% of …
Warren G. HardingAlbert JohnsonU.S. CongressImmigration Restriction Leagueimmigration-policyxenophobiainstitutional-capturelabor-suppressionnativism
President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant federal law restricting immigration into the United States based on race and nationality. The law prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese …
Chester A. ArthurU.S. CongressChinese immigrant workersLabor unionsWest Coast employersimmigration-policyracismlabor-suppressiongilded-agescapegoating+1 more