Europeans And Immigration Laws: Breaking Native American Rights

The arrival of European settlers in North America in the 15th century marked the beginning of a tumultuous era for Native American communities, who were subjected to relocation, renaming, dispersal, and destruction as a result of the relentless expansion of European settlements and the founding and growth of the United States. This process was driven by US government policies that disregarded the independence and well-being of Native Americans, and it continued over many centuries, with each episode marked by unique circumstances ranging from public negotiations to deceit, declarations of friendship, and even calls for genocide. The establishment of reservations and the passage of laws such as the Removal Act of 1830, which forced Native Americans to leave their lands and settle in the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, exemplify how European settlers broke immigration laws and treaties against Native Americans.

The 1790 law that limited citizenship to free whites of good moral character

The Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted the right of naturalization to "free white persons of good character." In practice, this meant that only white male property owners could naturalize and acquire citizenship. Women, non-white persons, and indentured servants were excluded. This law created a legal category of "aliens ineligible for citizenship," which predominantly affected Asian immigrants and restricted their rights in critical areas of life, including property ownership and voting.

The law's requirement of "good moral character" further limited the eligibility for citizenship. This vague criterion was often used to discriminate against certain groups and individuals deemed undesirable. Additionally, the residency requirements stipulated in the law made it challenging for those without stable housing or the means to maintain a continuous residence to apply for citizenship.

The Naturalization Act of 1790 reflected the prevailing racial hierarchies and biases of the time. By excluding non-white persons from citizenship, the law entrenched the notion that only whites were fully entitled to the rights and privileges of citizenship. This contributed to the marginalization and dispossession of Native Americans, who were already facing displacement and removal from their ancestral lands.

The impact of the 1790 law was far-reaching and long-lasting. While subsequent amendments and legislation, such as the Fourteenth Amendment and the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, expanded citizenship rights to include individuals regardless of race and granted blanket citizenship to Native Americans, the legacy of the 1790 law lingered. It set a precedent for racial restrictions on citizenship and contributed to the systemic discrimination and oppression faced by Native Americans and other racialized groups in the United States.

The 1838 forced relocation of Cherokees from their land, resulting in the Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears was the result of the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from their ancestral homeland in parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. This event occurred in 1838 when thousands of federal soldiers and Georgia volunteers forcibly removed the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokees were forced on a 1,000-mile march to the established Indian Territory, with insufficient provisions, and an estimated 4,000 died during this journey.

The roots of this forced relocation lay in the desire for westward expansion and the perceived "Indian Problem" by white settlers. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson, gave the federal government the power to remove Native Americans from their land in the east and relocate them to the "Indian Territory" in present-day Oklahoma. While some tribes signed treaties with the federal government, the Cherokee Nation resisted, challenging these removals in court.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Cherokees in 1832, President Jackson refused to enforce the decision. A small faction of the Cherokee tribe eventually signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, agreeing to give up their land in exchange for compensation and new homelands. However, the majority of the tribe, led by Principal Chief John Ross, continued to resist and hold onto their land.

As the deadline for removal approached in 1838, federal soldiers and Georgia volunteers entered the Cherokee territory and forcibly removed them. The Cherokees were subjected to hunting, imprisonment, assault, and murder during this process. Those who survived were forced on the arduous march to the Indian Territory, with little food, medicine, or clothing. The journey took a devastating toll, with an estimated 4,000 out of 15,000 to 16,000 Cherokees perishing from the harsh conditions of the Trail of Tears.

The Trail of Tears was a tragic chapter in American history, exemplifying the broken immigration laws and the forced relocation of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. The Cherokee Nation's resistance and their tragic journey brought awareness to the effects of the United States' policy of American Indian removal, which had a profound impact not only on the Cherokee but also on other tribes in the region.

The 1891 Immigration Act that barred polygamists, criminals, and people with contagious diseases

The Immigration Act of 1891 was a federal law that clarified and centralised the US government's immigration enforcement authority. The act expanded the list of excludable and deportable immigrants, barring polygamists, people with contagious diseases, and those convicted of "crimes of moral turpitude". It also extended immigration inspections to land borders and created the Office of Superintendent of Immigration to supervise new immigration inspectors at points of entry. This office was established within the Treasury Department, which had been charged with overseeing immigration law since 1882.

The 1891 Act was part of a series of laws that increasingly restricted immigration to the United States. The first of these was the 1875 law, which banned suspected prostitutes from entering the country. This was followed by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred most new Chinese immigrants. The Immigration Act of 1917 required all immigrants over the age of 16 to prove they could read and write and raised the "head tax" on immigrants to $8. The 1924 Immigration Act further restricted immigration, ensuring that most immigrants were from Northern and Western Europe. It also played a key role in ending the previous era of largely unrestricted immigration.

The treatment of Native Americans by the US government stands in stark contrast to these immigration laws. From the early 19th century, the US government used treaties and, from 1830, the Removal Act, as a means to displace Native Americans from their tribal lands. Under President Andrew Jackson, the US government violated treaties and Supreme Court rulings to facilitate the spread of European Americans westward. The Removal Act of 1830 established a process by which the President could grant land west of the Mississippi River to Native American tribes that agreed to give up their homelands. As an incentive, the law allowed for financial and material assistance to be provided to those who agreed to move.

Despite the existence of these laws, the displacement of Native Americans was often enforced through violence and coercion. For example, in 1838, thousands of federal soldiers and Georgia volunteers forcibly relocated the Cherokees, hunting, imprisoning, assaulting, and murdering many in the process. The Cherokees who survived were forced on a 1,000-mile march to the Indian Territory with few provisions. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this "Trail of Tears".

The 1924 Immigration Act that favoured immigration from Western and Northern Europe

The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, was a highly restrictive piece of legislation that favoured immigration from Western and Northern Europe. It was driven by xenophobic and nativist sentiments, as well as the desire to preserve the "ideal of U.S. homogeneity". The Act drastically reduced the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year and established a quota system that heavily favoured immigrants from Western and Northern Europe.

The Act set a total immigration quota of 165,000 for countries outside the Western Hemisphere, an 80% reduction from the average before World War I. This was based on a formula that allocated quotas in proportion to each nationality's share of the total U.S. population in the 1920 census. The formula gave 85% of the immigration quota to Northern and Western Europe. In contrast, the Act effectively cut off all immigration from Asia and severely restricted immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.

The explicit goal of the quotas was to rewind the country's racial and ethnic mix to a time when immigration was dominated by Western and Northern European immigrants. The Act's supporters believed that this would make the United States a more homogeneous nation and a "vastly better place to live". The quotas were also influenced by eugenics, with proponents arguing that Northern and Western Europeans were of "higher intelligence" and thus provided "the best material for American citizenship".

In addition to the quota system, the Act also established the U.S. Border Patrol and required immigrants to obtain visas from a U.S. consulate abroad before entering the country. It also made anyone who entered the country without a visa or overstayed their allotted period subject to deportation.

The 1924 Immigration Act had a significant impact on the demographic makeup of the United States, drastically reducing the size of the country's foreign-born population for decades. It was not until the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that the racist vestiges of the 1924 Act and the national-origins quotas were finally eliminated.

The Bracero program that brought in temporary workers from Mexico and other countries during World War II

The Bracero Program

The Bracero Program was a U.S. Government-sponsored program that imported Mexican farm and railroad workers into the United States between 1942 and 1964. The program was the result of a series of laws and diplomatic agreements initiated when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico on August 4, 1942. The agreement guaranteed decent living conditions (sanitation, adequate shelter, and food) and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour for farmworkers, as well as protections from forced military service. The agreement also stated that a portion of the workers' wages would be put into a private savings account in Mexico.

The Bracero Program was created by executive order in 1942 because many growers argued that World War II would bring labor shortages to low-paying agricultural jobs. The program lasted much longer than anticipated, and in 1951, concerns about production and the U.S. entry into the Korean conflict led Congress to formalize the program with Public Law 78. The program offered employment contracts to 5 million Braceros in 24 U.S. states, becoming the largest guest worker program in U.S. history.

The Bracero Program was controversial. Mexican nationals, desperate for work, were willing to take arduous jobs at wages scorned by most Americans. Farm workers already living in the United States worried that Braceros would compete for jobs and lower wages. In practice, employers ignored many of the rules and Mexican and native workers suffered while growers benefited from plentiful, cheap labor. Between the 1940s and the mid-1950s, farm wages dropped sharply as a result of the use of Braceros and undocumented laborers who lacked full rights in American society.

In addition to the adverse effects on wages, the Bracero Program also had negative impacts on living conditions for the workers. Discrimination and maltreatment of Mexicans were common, including lynchings along the border. In Texas, the program was banned by Mexico for several years in the mid-1940s due to this discrimination and maltreatment. Despite agreements to the contrary, Braceros experienced surcharges for room and board, deducted pay, and exposure to deadly chemicals.

The Bracero Program concluded on December 31, 1964, as mechanization became more widespread. Ultimately, the program resulted in an influx of undocumented and documented laborers, 22 years of cheap labor from Mexico, and remittances to Mexico by Braceros.

When European settlers began arriving in North America in the fifteenth century, the continent was richly populated with Native American communities. The centuries that followed the arrival of Europeans were marked by tremendous upheaval as the expansion of settler territory and the founding and growth of the United States resulted in Native American communities being moved, renamed, combined, dispersed, and, in some cases, destroyed. These changes were driven by the relentless expansion of European settlement and U.S. territory, and by U.S. government policies that relegated the independence and well-being of Native Americans to secondary status, if that.

Early U.S. immigration legislation tended to impose limits that favored Europeans. A 1790 law was the first to specify who could become a citizen, limiting that privilege to free whites of "good moral character" who had lived in the U.S. for at least two years. In 1870, the right of citizenship was extended to those of African origin. Starting in 1875, a series of restrictions on immigration were enacted, targeting criminals, people with contagious diseases, polygamists, anarchists, beggars, and importers of prostitutes. Other restrictions targeted the rising number of Asian immigrants, first limiting migration from China and later banning immigration from most Asian countries.

The Immigration Act of 1924 greatly restricted immigration and ensured that arriving immigrants were mostly from Northern and Western Europe. It closed the door on almost all new Asian immigration and shut out most European Jews and other refugees fleeing fascism and the Holocaust in Europe. The law played a key role in ending the previous era of largely unrestricted immigration and limited religious, ethnic, and racial diversity. The explicit goal of the quotas was to rewind the country's racial and ethnic mix to a time dominated by Western and Northern European immigration.

In summary, European settlers and the U.S. government broke immigration laws and committed numerous injustices against Native Americans through forced relocation, discriminatory legislation, and the encouragement of unrestricted European immigration at the expense of other groups.

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