In all of the debates about immigration most everybody on this site has recognized that at some point we, or our ancestors, were immigrants too. However, there has also been a clear line drawn by many that there is a difference between
legal and
illegal immigration.
Well, I'm here - American as all get out.
Social security card, driver's license, passport, even a regularly used voter's registration card.
How did this come to be? It was really fairly easy.
Let me tell you my story.
I was born in the United States, to a U.S. born father and a Canadian born mother. My mother entered the country on a visitor's visa under a mistaken assumption conveyed by my father's older brother (older brother's know everything, right?) that the simple fact of their marriage would automatically confer US citizenship on her. Maybe he was confused by the 1945 War Brides Act that allowed foreign born wives of US citizens who had served in the armed forces to automatically obtain citizenship. At that point my Dad had served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, but had not yet joined the USAF
Well, oopsie - big brother was mistaken! So they returned to Canada after that visa's six month expiration and "re-entered" through proper channels. This included a court hearing, held at the border; followed by a period of time and the passing of tests on US history, government, etc. In 1949 my mother appeared at her nearest local Federal Courthouse and became an official US citizen. So, by the time I showed up in 1950 everything was
legal.
Of course, neither my mother nor father appeared on the North American continent without forebears of their own. As it happens my family has done diligent (almost obsessive) research on "ye olde family tree" - backed up with full birth/death/marriage and other confirmed documents. So we know an awful lot about how we came to be here.
We come from some legal immigrants from England in the 1600's. At that time the legal citizenship requirement was pretty much "just show up". (One of our guys in that group "showed up" involuntarily, as an indentured servant.)
In the late 1700's we strengthened the family ties with Canada through emigration, rather than immigration. A Royalist ancestor fled north to Canada because he objected to the war (Revolutionary war, that was). In truth it was probably less to do with moral objection, and more to do with saving his skin.
In the 1800's and early 1900's the family tree branches were fertilized by immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. In those times legal immigration required arrivals to be free, white, and in good physical and mental health. My ancestors met these requirements. So did my husband's German ancestors.
I guess it's a very good thing that our ancestors got here when they did, because in later years there were quotas.
1921 Quota Act limits annual European immigration to 3 percent of the number of a nationality group in the United States in 1910.
1924 The Johnson-Reed Act limits annual European immigration to 2 percent of the number of nationality group in the United States in 1890.
It is also good luck that we weren't from brown, beige, or yellow ancestors
1917 The law also specifies that immigration is prohibited from Asia, except from Japan and the Philippines.
1946 restricted Filipino immigration by establishing an annual immigration quota of 50;
extends the right to become naturalized citizens to Filipinos and Asian Indians. The immigration quota is 100 people a year.
1917 The law also specifies that immigration is prohibited from Asia, except from Japan and the Philippines.
.
Good thing that back then nobody was counting
1990 The Immigration Act of 1990 increases the number of immigrants allowed into the United States each year to 700,000
.
Wow! 700,000 immigrants. How can we find work and housing and space for them all?
When you talk about "legal immigration" remember that the laws change regularly. It was relatively easy to legally immigrate in the 1600's, 1700's and even 1800's and 1900's (unless you were Chinese, or Japanese, or Asian-Indian). If you were Irish it was a "piece of cake", except you had to take the lowest paying and nastiest jobs as field workers, railroad workers, miners, and servants - and there was a span of time in the mid-1800's when "No Irish Need Apply" for any kind of housing or jobs. If your ancestors were legal immigrants they jumped through the legal hoops of their times - but not the same faced by those hoping to immigrate today.
For an easy to digest summary of immigration law over the years:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/...