In the United States, federal policy oversees and regulates immigration and citizenship. The United States Congress has authority over immigration policy, and delegates enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security. Historically, the United States went through a period of loose immigration policy in the early-19th century followed by a period of strict immigration policy in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Policy areas related to the immigration process include visa policy, asylum policy, and naturalization policy. Policy areas related to illegal immigration include deferral policy and removal policy.
Policy development Article One of the United States Constitution directly empowers Congress to establish laws regarding naturalization. Supreme Court rulings such as Chae Chan Ping v. United States in 1889 and Fong Yue Ting v. United States in 1893 hold that the powers of Congress over foreign policy extend to legislation regarding immigration. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution grants birthright citizenship through the Citizenship Clause. Historically, immigration to the United States has been regulated through a series of Naturalization Acts and Immigration Acts.
Since 2003, the Department of Homeland Security has been responsible for carrying out immigration policy in the United States, and the department has three agencies that oversee immigration. Customs and Border Protection is responsible for border control. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for law enforcement around national borders and enforcement of laws against illegal immigration. The Citizenship and Immigration Services are responsible for processing legal immigration and naturalization. Other agencies involved in immigration policy include the Executive Office for Immigration Review in the Department of Justice and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services.
History
18th century The United States did not heavily legislate on immigration during the 18th and 19th centuries, resulting in a policy of open borders. Citizenship was restricted on the basis of race. Immigration and naturalization were typically legislated separately at this time, with no coordination between policy on the two issues. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was the first federal law to govern the naturalization process in the United States; restricting naturalization to white immigrants. Several additional Naturalization Acts modified the terms of naturalization in the 1790s and 1800s.
19th century To protect the rights of recently freed slaves, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 guaranteed that all individuals born within the United States were automatically granted citizenship. This right was written into the Constitution under the Citizenship Clause with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. The naturalization process was expanded to include African Americans with the Naturalization Act of 1870, but immigration from China was explicitly banned under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. As people from more countries immigrated to the United States, courts were tasked with determining the racial origin of prospective citizens to determine eligibility. In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that birthright citizenship applied to the children of Chinese immigrants.
20th century The Naturalization Act of 1906 created the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization to organize immigration policy. Immigration to the United States from Japan ended in 1907 following an informal agreement between the two countries, and immigration restrictions on East Asian countries were expanded through the Immigration Act of 1917 and the Immigration Act of 1924. Immigration from China would not be restored until the Magnuson Act was passed in 1943.
The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established the first quota system to restrict the number of immigrants from a given country. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was created in 1933 by combining the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. The Nationality Act of 1940 was passed to create a unified code of United States naturalization law. Following World War II, the War Brides Act allowed exemptions of immigration quotas for immediate relatives of American service-members. The Luce–Celler Act of 1946 made immigrants from India and the Philippines eligible for citizenship, although it capped entry at 100 immigrants per country per year. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was passed to create a unified code of United States immigration law, and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 repealed the quota system that was used to limit immigration from each country.
The Vietnam War resulted in a significant increase of immigrants and refugees to the United States from Southeast Asia. The Refugee Act was passed in 1980 to establish a legal framework for accepting refugees, and the American Homecoming Act gave preferential status to immigrant children of American service-members. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provided a path to permanent residency to some illegal immigrants but made it illegal for employers to hire illegal immigrants. Immigration was significantly reformed by the Immigration Act of 1990, which set a cap of 700,000 immigrants annually and changed the standards for immigration. The IIRIRA was passed in 1996 to apply restrictions on illegal immigrants.
21st century In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that immigrants cannot be held indefinitely if no country will accept them for deportation in Zadvydas v. Davis. Enforcement of immigration law was reformed following the September 11 attacks, shifting focus to national security. The Immigration and Nationalization Service was split into the Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Customs and Border Protection.
21st-century developments
In June 2001, in Zadvydas v. Davis the Supreme court ruled that non-citizens could not be detained indefinitely if removal was not "reasonably foreseeable." After the September 11, 2001 attacks, immigration enforcement shifted its focus heavily towards national security. Congress created the Department of Homeland Security on November 25, 2002.
Under the Obama administration, immigration policy combined its enforcement power, and we sought an increase in detention and deportation, with a record removals of more than 3 million people. On June 15, 2012, Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which offered temporary protection from removal and work authorization to undocumented immigrants who had arrived as children and met certain circumstances.
In May 2023, the U.S. ended its use of Title 42, a public health directive enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants without standard asylum procedures.... Over 2.8 million expulsions occurred under the policy. After it expired, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a record 249,785 migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2023 alone.
In 2023, a federal judge in Texas reaffirmed that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was unlawful, although existing recipients were allowed to renew protections. As of early 2024, the program remained in place for current recipients, but new applications were still not being accepted.
In early 2024, bipartisan negotiations in Congress sought to tie immigration reform to foreign aid packages. Proposals included stricter asylum rules, expanded border enforcement, and expedited deportation procedures. Although the deal gained attention, it stalled due to disagreement over executive authority and humanitarian concerns.
In 2023, U.S. immigration authorities expanded use of the CBP One mobile app to manage asylum appointments at official ports of entry. The Biden administration promoted the app as a way to encourage orderly migration and reduce unauthorized crossings. However, advocacy groups raised concerns about limited daily appointment slots, connectivity issues, and unequal access to technology among migrants.
That same year, migrant encounters at the border increasingly involved people from countries like Venezuela, Haiti, and Guatemala, reflecting shifting regional migration patterns.
Despite repeated efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, major proposals continued to stall in Congress as of 2024.
On January 14, 2026 the State Department announced it was suspending visa processing for 75 nations including Somalia, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Brazil, Nigeria, and Thailand.
Legal immigration
The United States current arbitrary immigration system is based on the Nationality Act of 1965 and the Immigration Act of 1990 (INA). The Citizenship and Immigration Services are responsible for reviewing immigration applications and administering the immigration process. The INA allows the United States to grant approximately 675,000 permanent immigrant visas (green card) each year. In addition to the 675,000 permanent visas, the INA does not have a limit on the annual admission of U.S. citizens (e.g. spouses, parents, and children under 21 years of age). Family relationships, employment ties or humanitarian protection are main causes for immigrant seeking temporary or permanent U.S. residence. Each year the President is required to address the Congress and place an annual number of refugees to be admitted into the United States through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
Visa policy
To seek entry to the United States, prospective immigrants must apply and be accepted for a travel visa. If a person legally migrates to the United States they may petition for an adjustment of status to become a lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card holder.. Approximately one million green cards are granted annually. Between 2013 and 2017, 45% of green card recipients were immediate relatives of American citizens, and another 21% were family sponsored. 14% of recipients received green cards for employment, and 13% received green cards as refugees. The Diversity Immigrant Visa program also grants 55,000 green cards for applicants around the world each year. Immigrants seeking temporary residence in the United States apply for a temporary visa. Approved applicants are authorized to stay for a certain length of time, and they may also be authorized to work or attend university in the United States, depending on their visa category.
Historically, laws such as the War Brides Act of 1945 was passed at the end of World War II and the American Homecoming Act of 1988 have been passed to allow immediate relatives of American service-members to immigrate to the United States following a major war. In 2013, the parole in place program was established to provide temporary residency for the immediate relatives of active duty military personnel while they applied for lawful permanent residency.