 Alien Enemies Act |
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This is one of four acts known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts were passed by a Federalist-controlled Congress applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the U.S. They were highly controversial and contributed to the Federalist defeat in the election of 1800. After 1802, only the Alien Enemies Act remained in force, and has continued to be invoked during times of war. In 2025, the President invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the exportation of Venezuelan suspected gang members.
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| Alien Friends Act |
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This is one of four acts known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts were passed by a Federalist-controlled Congress applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the U.S. They were highly controversial and contributed to the Federalist defeat in the election of 1800. After 1802, only the Alien Enemies Act remained in force, and has continued to be invoked during times of war.
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| Alien Registration Act |
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This act, also known as the Smith Act, required all non-citizens entering and living within the U.S. to register their alien status with the government. It also set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government. This law was written to address concerns about subversive activities on the eve of American involvement in World War II.
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 Alien Registration Form for Kit Chun |
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The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required all non-citizens entering and living within the U.S. to register their alien status with the government by completing an Alien Registration Form. The AR-2 form included a questionnaire and a requirement that fingerprints be taken at the time of registration. This act, also known as the Smith Act, was written to address concerns about subversive activities on the eve of American involvement in World War II.
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| Angell Treaty |
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The Angell Treaty of 1880 amended the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and sought to regulate, limit, and suspend the arrival of Chinese laborers to the United States. Article Three of the treaty established a clause stating that Chinese subjects experiencing violence and mistreatment on U.S. soil should be entitled to protection by the U.S. government.
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| Asian Americans Confront U.S. Law and Policy: A Case Study of the Vietnamese Impact on Defining the "Refugee" |
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This teaching module looks at the role Vietnamese migrants played in creating the current status of refugees, featuring a webinar with Linda Ho Peché, project director for the Vietnamese in the Diaspora Digital Archive.
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| Asian Immigrants' Fight Against Discriminatory Alien Land Laws |
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This module examines the history of anti-Asian/Japanese alien land laws in the 1920s United States, focusing on one lawsuit by Chinese immigrant Lum Jung Luke that brought down Arkansas' Alien Land Act.
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| Burlingame-Seward Treaty |
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In the wake of the Second Opium War (1865-60), United States Secretary of State William Seward and the U.S. Minister to China Anson Burlingame negotiated what became known as the Burlingame Treaty of 1868. The treaty established trade ports for the U.S. in China, opened Chinese consuls in the U.S., and permitted the free immigration and travel of Chinese immigrants to the United States under the "the most-favored nation principle."
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| Displaced Persons Act |
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The first U.S. policy regarding refugees, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 only allowed for European people displaced by World War II to enter the United States as refugees. Despite the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights providing broad definitions for refugees, the United States continued to use narrow geographically or politically specific definitions for refugees until 1980.
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| Dow v. United States |
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In Dow v. United States, the Court of Appeals ruled that people from Southwest Asia could be considered white and were eligible for citizenship. This decision came seven years before the Supreme Court ruled that migrants from Japan and India were not white enough to be eligible for citizenship.
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| Executive Order 14160 - Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship |
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This executive order by President Donald Trump aims to end birthright citizenship if a mother is in the United States illegally or the mother is in the U.S. temporarily and the father is not a citizen.
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| Gonzales v. Williams |
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Gonzales v. Williams is one of a series of cases decided by the Supreme Court addressing the status of U.S. territories known as the Insular Cases. This case determined that while people from Puerto Rico were not citizens of the United States, they were also not "aliens." This case labelled those in unincorporated territories as U.S, nationals instead of citizens.
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| Grover Cleveland Speech Regarding Chinese Immigrant Workers |
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President Grover Cleveland's 1886 speech discusses the anti-Chinese violence at Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory. In it he argues that the United States is not responsible for this violence.
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| Immigration Act of 1891 |
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The Immigration Act of 1891 gave the Federal Government direct control over assessing and processing immigrants into the United States. It prohibited polygamists, people convicted of "crimes of moral turpitude," and people with certain diseases from entering the U.S. The act also created the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration within the Treasury Department to regulate immigration.
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| Immigration Act of 1917 |
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The 1917 Immigration Act was a federal law that created the Asiatic barred zone, prohibiting immigration from Asian nations.
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| Immigration Act of 1924 |
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Also known as the Johnson–Reed Act, this federal law set quotas on the number of immigrants from every country outside Latin America and barred immigration from Asia entirely.
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| Immigration and Nationality Act |
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The Immigration and Nationality Act amended the 1924 Immigration Act, functionally repealing the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. This act started the categorization of refugees, but continued the U.S. pattern of defining refugees by geography or politics, and not adopting United Nations terminology.
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| In re Halladjian et al. |
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In this case, a Massachusetts circuit court ruled that people from West Asia were so intermixed with Europeans that the Armenian plaintiffs should be considered white and admitted to U.S. citizenship.
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| In the Matter of the Application of Andrew J. Sawyer for Writ of Habeas Corpus for Chin Tu Ling, Lee Shun, and Look Fung |
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The habeas corpus petitions related to the Mee Lee Wah Village show legal challenges related to carceral confinement and immigration in the nineteenth century.
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| In the Matter of the Application of Yu Gum and Yu Hung for a Writ of Habeas Corpus |
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The habeas corpus petitions of Yu Gum and Yu Hung show legal challenges related to carceral confinement and immigration in the nineteenth century.
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| In the matter of the Petition of Ham Hung Wah by Tom Sing for Writ of Habeas Corpus |
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The habeas corpus petition of Tom Sing show legal challenges related to immigration in the early twentieth century.
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| In the Matter of the Petition of Kichitaro Kubota and Ise Kubota for a Writ of Habeas Corpus |
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The habeas corpus petitions of Kichitaro Kubota and Ise Kubota show legal challenges related to immigration in the early twentieth century
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| Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act |
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This act allowed 130,000 refugees from South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to enter the United States and allotted relocation aid and financial assistance.
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| Jones–Shafroth Act |
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This act granted U.S. citizenship to anyone born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899, reformed the Puerto Rican government, and included a bill of rights that paralleled the rights and privileges available to U.S. citizens in the states and territories.
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 Keeping Account |
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This political cartoon, published in the wake of the Rock Springs Massacre that targeted Chinese laborers, depicted the practice of "indemnity," or compensation between nations in the wake of racial violence. The cartoon depicted Uncle Sam and the Emperor of China debating how and whether China would be compensated for the racial violence in Wyoming Territory.
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