January 1892: Ellis Island, the United States’ first immigration station, opened in New York Harbor. More than 12 million immigrants entered the US through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954.

 

1907: US immigration peaked, with 1.3 million people entering the country through Ellis Island alone. Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the US.

 

1910: An estimated three-quarters of New York City’s population consisted of new immigrants and first-generation Americans.

 

1917: Xenophobia reached a new high on the eve of American involvement in WWI. The Immigration Act of 1917 established a literacy requirement for immigrants entering the country and halted immigration from most Asian countries.

 

May 1924: The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed into the US yearly through nationality quotas. The new system favored immigrants from Northern and Western European countries. The Act completely excluded immigrants from Asia, aside from the Philippines, which was an American colony. This resulted in the increase of illegal immigration to the US. The US Border Patrol is established to crack down on illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders into the US. Many of these early border crossers were Chinese and other Asian immigrants, who had been barred from entering legally.

 

1942: Labor shortages during WWII prompted the US and Mexico to form the Bracero Program, which allowed Mexican agricultural workers to enter the US temporarily. The program lasted until 1964.