Since this nation's founding, more than 55 million immigrants from every continent have settled in the United States. In fact, with the exception of Native Americans, everyone living in this country is either an immigrant or the descendent of voluntary or involuntary immigrants.
Yet every wave of immigration has faced fear and hostility, especially during times of economic hardship, political turmoil, or war:
- in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, one of our nation's first immigration laws, to keep out all people of Chinese origin
- during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, thousands of foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized; many were deported without a hearing.
- in 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps until the end of World War II.
It is true that the Constitution does not give foreigners the right to enter the U.S.. However, once here, the Constitution protects immigrants from discrimination based on race and national origin and from arbitrary treatment by the government. Immigrants work and pay taxes; legal immigrants are subject to the military draft. Many immigrants have lived in this country for decades, married U.S. citizens, and raised their U.S.-citizen children. Laws that punish them violate their fundamental right to fair and equal treatment.
Visit this page often to learn about ACLU-EM work on immigrant issues, and learn more about ACLU's national Immigrant Rights work.
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