From the nation's beginning, race has been an instrumental factor in immigration law and policy. According to the Naturalization Act of 1790, ch. 3, § 1, 1 Stat. 103, 103–04 [Any] free white person
residing within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States
for at least two years could be granted citizenship provided he showed good character
and swore allegiance to the Constitution.
The Chinese Exclusion Ace Pub. L. 47–126 (1882) which, as the name implies, forbade the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years. At that time, states also had a role in setting immigration criteria for themselves. It was not until the Supreme Court made immigration the explicit and exclusive province of the federal government in 1895.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act) eliminated racial bars to immigration and citizenship. It was not until the 1965: Hart-Celler when abolished immigration quotas by national origin.
Post 1965, the stated goals of U.S. immigration was to reunite families and attract skilled workers. It was not until the United States Refugee Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-212) that a permanent policy addressing the plight of refugees was established.
While race is no longer an explicit criteria in U.S. immigration law, it has been argued that the USA Patriot Act of 2001 which allows for the detention of aliens suspected of terrorist associations and the unreviewable labeling of groups as 'terrorist' proceeds from assumptions based on racial stereotypes.
The resources on this page will document current and historical U.S. immigration law, policy and practice as it pertains to race.