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Immigration Policies In The United States

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At the very start of the creation of the United States, any immigration policies created were established in such a way as to divide the citizens that were considered wanted and unwanted. The first immigration policy created, the Naturalization Act of 1790, had limited citizenship for any “free white person” who possessed “good moral character.”1 This piece of legislation established two key factors that still affect immigration policies in the US today: it established a means of sorting between the desirable and undesirable immigrants coming into the country, and it indicated that proximity to the US was a key factor since a majority of immigrants who were granted citizenship had already been living in the US. This first immigration policy

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