The History of Immigration in the United States

Where there's immigration law and politics, there's bound to be embarrassment. And 2011 had plenty of it.

Study shows that new immigrants are assimilating into American society.

Here are the Top 10 immigration stories of the last year:

Immigrant soldiers contributed much to the U.S. effort in the Iraq war.

A Pew study finds that births, not immigration, is the leading growth factor in the U.S. Hispanic population. Mexican-Americans are leading the surge.

Asian-Americans are expanding from traditional population centers on the U.S. coasts to form new communities in the Sunbelt and Heartland.

During the spring of 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that lawyers are required to inform their clients if their guilty pleas carry a risk of deportation. Shouldn't legal immigrants avoid engaging in illegal activities in the first place? We explore this issue using the Padilla vs. Kentucky case as an example.

The United States gives migrants from Cuba special treatment under the "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy.

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, the country was focused on the historic health care legislation vote. All, that is, except for the over 200,000 people who filled the Washington Mall to urge the President and Congress to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform.

Researching your family history? USCIS allows researchers to search its historical databases for immigration records.

A few days before the November 2008 presidential election, a leak revealed that Zeituni Onyango, half-sister of Barack Obama’s late father, was living illegally in South Boston after ignoring a 2004 deportation order.

On February 1, 2010, President Obama released his full budget for Fiscal Year 2011. The President continues to make border security and immigration enforcement his main focus.

On December 9, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and provided an update on how the department is dealing with important immigration issues.

Immigration-related excerpts from the transcript of the press conference by U.S. President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon on August 10, 2009 during the North American Leaders Summit in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Immigration-related excerpts from the transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Minnesota Senator Al Franken's views on immigration.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 marked the first meeting between President Obama and members of Congress to discuss immigration reform.

The names INS and USCIS are often used interchangeably to refer to the agency that administers immigration and naturalization services within the United States, but do they mean the same thing?

On May 2, 2009, President Obama released his full budget providing all the details for the blueprint that Congress approved in the Budget Resolution. Border security and immigration enforcement rather than making the process easier for current legal immigrants.

On May 6, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and provided an update on how the department is dealing with important immigration issues.

The first 100 days in office yardstick is important to every President. Unfortunately for Americans, immigration reform was not one of President Obama's first-100-days key issues.

On January 15, 2009, Homeland Security Secretary designate and Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano testified at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Campaign promises are easier to keep when you don't make any, and immigration wasn't on the agenda for most of the 2008 election year. Immigration might not have grabbed the limelight in 2008 but there was certainly no shortage of news stories. The following top 10 immigration issues were popular in 2008.

The history of naturalization requirements can be found in the legislative history of immigration to the United States.

More than 20 million immigrants passed through the nation's premier federal immigration station between 1892 and 1924. Over 40 percent of America's population can trace their ancestry through Ellis Island.

The American Immigrant Wall of Honor at Ellis Island in New York Harbor is a permanent exhibit celebrating American immigration. It is inscribed with over 700,000 names representing immigrants both living and deceased, from all nations and all points of entry. Names are also searchable online.

FAIR provides historical immigrant admission data from 1821 to 2006, as well as a history of immigration legislation from 1790.

A feature presentation from the Library of Congress. Although it has been designed for students and educators, the content will appeal to anyone interested in the history of U.S. immigration.

A computer glitch caused huge problems in 2012 green card lottery.

The United States' Visa Waiver Program allows foreign nationals to come here for up to 90 days for business or travel without applying for a visa.

Researchers found that more Hispanic children live in poverty in the United States than children of any other racial or ethnic group.