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Genocide of indigenous people begins with Christopher Columbus' voyage to the Americas.

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First shipload of enslaved African people to American colonies arrives in Jamestown, Virginia.

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Again, exact names and dates escape me but from what I've been told, my maternal grandmother's lineage can be traced back to a family who migrated from England to the Kansas territory (pre-statehood) for farming in the early 18th century.
-Bannon

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1790: Naturalization Act restricts citizenship to "free white persons."

1798: Alien and Sedition Act: Allows the president to imprison or deport any non-citizen "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States."

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Family immigrated from France, England, and Germany - reasons unknown, likely for work opportunities
Isabelle Watson

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Congress bans the importation of enslaved people into the U.S.

Southern states largely ignore the law.

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Removal Act mandates the removal of Native Americans from east of the Mississippi River to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma. Over 30,000 people die during forced migration, which the Cherokee remember as "The Trail of Tears."

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Underground Railroad: Almost 100,000 enslaved people escape to the North on the Underground Railroad, with the help of free African Americans and white sympathizers who provide shelter and guidance. By 1850, Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, which penalizes anyone who helps an enslaved person escape to freedom.

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Large wave of immigration begins due to Irish Potato Famine, crop failures in Germany, industrialization, and failed European revolutions.

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Mexican-American War/Intervención Estadounidense en México: The U.S. invades Mexico for control of land and resources. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed in 1848, transferring over 55% of Mexican land to the U.S. Territory ceded includes present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Mexican citizens living in this territory have the choice to gain U.S. citizenship within one year. Many forcibly lose their land.

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The Homestead Act encourages many new European immigrants to move to the western U.S., taking over territory once inhabited and cared for by Native Americans.

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1865: 13th Amendment outlaws slavery. The Ku Klux Klan is founded to maintain white supremacy through intimidation and violence.

1868: 14th Amendment grants equal protection rights.

1870: 15th Amendment grants African American men the right to vote.

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Chinese Exclusion Act is passed, barring most Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S.

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My great great grandfather Max Warshaw migrates from Russia to Massachusetts -Naomi

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Lane and Larkin families immigrate from County Cork and County Clare in Ireland, respectively. Lane family goes through the Boston Port of Entry, while the Larkin family enters via Baltimore. Both families came by boat. These were my great-grandparents on my mother's side. (Thomas Bradley)

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Spanish-American War: U.S. invades and occupies Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and other Spanish colonies in the Pacific Islands. Hawaii is annexed by force.

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I don't remember her name off the top of my head (my dad's family isn't great with tracking history) but my great-great grandmother (my father's great grandmother) migrated from Poland to Kansas around the turn of the century.
-Bannon

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My great-grandfather flees persecution in Russia and immigrates to NYC around the turn of the century. His last name is shortened to "Stark."

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Great Migration: Over 1 million African Americans migrate from the South to the North to escape lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and economic hardship.

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During the Mexican Revolution,  thousands migrate to the U.S. border.

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My family immigrates from Northern Italy to the US.

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My great-great grandmother Anastasia plans to emigrate from Ireland to the US on the Titanic, but did not due to her mother being ill. Ends up in the US sometime a decade later, giving birth to my great-grandmother Ruth in Connecticut in 1924.

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Ku Klux Klan grows in strength; Klan membership peaks in 1925 with over 5 million members.

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Congress enacts a literacy requirement for immigrants. Mexicans are exempted from some anti-immigrant legislation so they can continue to provide labor for key industries.

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Palmer Raids: Deportations and round ups of "aliens," anarchists, and communists (especially influential labor organizers from southern Europe and Latin America) increase.

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The Quota Acts of 1921 and 1924 are established in response to growing anti-immigrant sentiment and to placate white supremicists. The acts establish a "national origins quota system" that favors immigration from Europe.

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The U.S. government deports thousands of Mexicans, including many Mexican-American citizens, during the Great Depression.

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My grandmother, Pat Davidson, and her parents emigrate from Austria to New Jersey, fleeing due to rumors about WW2 (Tallie Steiner).

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My grandfather, Jacques Renaud emigrates from France some time between the wars. Reason unknown. (Thea Abu El-Haj)

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The Tydings-McDuffie Act grants independence to the Philippines, limiting Filipino immigration to 50 persons per year. All Filipinos in the United States are reclassified as "aliens."

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He moved from Chicago to Tijuana, Mexico where he raised my grandmother.

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Around 1936, the year my Yiayia (grandmother) was born, her father came to the United States from Greece, after he was displaced from Asia Minor (what is now Turkey). Around 1939, he was placed in jail for being discovered as "illegal," but offered parole on the condition that he fight for the U.S. in WWII. After returning from war, he brought over my Yiayia and her brothers to Winston-Salem, NC.
(Lana Kalfas)

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The Alien Registration Act requires registration and fingerprinting of "aliens" over 14 years of age.

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Japanese Internment: Over 112,000 Japanese-Americans - most of them U.S. citizens - are placed in military internment camps during World War II.

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While the exact year in unknown, my ancestors came, actually not the U.S. but to Hawaiʻi, in the early to mid 1900's. Though my great-grandparents did not get interned during WWII, many of my family members chose to enlist, and the family members who moved to the mainland were interned and lost all of their property, belongings, and sense of American identity.

Kiki

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The Bracero Program brings in over 5 million temporary workers from Mexico, primarily to fill agricultural labor shortage during World War II.

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My grandfather, Joseph Goldfarb, fled from Belgium to Caracas, Venezuela to reunite with his family after hiding during the Holocaust

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My grandfather, Hersch Altman, and his remaining family fled from Nazi persecution in Poland to a displaced persons camp in Italy. (Natalie Harder)

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My family fled Pakistan to India due to various reasons; religious separation, increased violence, rise of Hindu and Muslim nationalism and strict borders that were been drawn by the British Colonizers. In one month, around 850,000 people, including my family, migrated the other side, leaving their belongings behind.

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My grandfather, Joey Steiner, emigrates from Germany to New York City after successfully hiding through the Holocaust in Poland (Tallie Steiner).

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After fleeing from Poland to Italy to escape Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, my grandfather Hersch Altman eventually immigrated to New York to live with distant relatives. (Natalie Harder)

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1951 United Nations Refugee Convention is signed, defining rights of refugees, including protections for employment and welfare, on the issue of identity papers and travel documents. The Convention is later amended in 1967 to apply to all people who became refugees after 1951.

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The McCarren Walter Act eliminates racial barriers to citizenship, but also tightens quotas for immigrants and allows for deportation on the basis of "subversive activities."

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Operation Wetback targets Mexican-American communities, deporting over 3.8 suspected "illegal immigrants" to Mexico.

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My father Ribhi Abu El-Haj, comes from Palestine for graduate study at UCLA, and then Columbia U, but then left to work and live in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and ultimately back in Palestine (Thea Abu El-Haj)

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This public mistreatment of Rosa Parks, along with other events, sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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My grandfather (Chiu Hon) moves to the US on a student visa from Guangzhou, China for high school. (Elodia Lunn)

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Bradley family immigrates from Australia to Minneapolis, Minnesota. These were my grandparents and father. (Thomas Bradley)

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My grandparents came to the US as Fulbright scholars in 1961.

Context:
My grandmother was 8 during the 1948 Nakba and my grandfather was 12. My grandmother's family fled from Jaffa,  Palestine to Amman, Jordan by foot. My grandfather's family that survived the Nakba remained in Nablus. My grandfather finished his education in Palestine (not sure where). My grandmother went to a teacher's college in Ramallah, and they came to the US as Fulbright scholars. The rest of my family stayed scattered throughout the Middle East. (E. Yousif)

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1961: Freedom Rides
1963: March on Washington
1964: The Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in public accommodations and by employers.
1965: Voting Rights Act; Malcom X is assassinated.
1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.

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My father and his family moved from Greece to Brazil. (Victoria Kalfas)

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My Costa Rican grandmother (Soledad) emigrated to the US to marry my Chinese grandfather (Chiu Hon), starting a new life in America on a green card. (Elodia Lunn)

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Immigration and Nationality Act repeals the national origins quota system that favored European migration.

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My grandfather Aroon Shah came from Mumbai, India to study at WPI and earn a graduate degree in Engineering before returning to India. He returned to America with his wife Asha in 1969. (Sajan Bar)

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My (paternal) Indian-Jamaican grandmother (Sonja Parboosingh) emigrates to The Bahamas to marry my Bahamian grandfather (John Lunn) after graduating medical school in Edinburgh as one of 4 women in her graduating class. (Elodia Lunn)

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My paternal aunt Bouchara Naji, comes from Baghdad, Iraq through an I-130/marriage-based Visa to an Iraqi-American.

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My grandfather Kanai Bar, comes from a Kolkata, India for graduate studies in nuclear physics at Columbia University and then officially immigrates with his wife after securing a job at a Naval Shipyard. (Sajan Bar)

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My grandfather immigrated to Wisconsin from Nigeria to go to college.
Isabelle Watson

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My grandfather moves to Brooklyn from the Dominican Republic to find better work opportunities. After a few years, he goes back to the Dominican Republic to find a wife and brings my grandmother to the United States to raise a family. (Liliannie Ortiz)

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My mom and her immediate family move to South Bay San Diego from Tijuana.

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My father Khalid Naji, his parents, and siblings come from Baghdad, Iraq with Green Cards after my aunt Bouchara Naji sponsors them. My father, his parents, and four of his siblings remained in United States (specifically, the Bronx, New York City) for one year, but returned to Iraq after feeling like they could not adjust to this new life.

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My maternal grandmother first immigrates to Canada from Jamaica and eventually makes it to New York

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Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act allows refugees from Southeast Asia to the U.S.

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My father migrated to New York City as a teenager to find a better job to support his family. (Orubba Almansouri)

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My mother and father migrated to East Harlem from Puebla, Mexico as teenagers to find better work opportunities. My mother had an education Visa and was able to arrive by plane. Whereas, my father did not and crossed by foot. (Saraly)

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Sanctuary Movement: More than 250 churches provide refuge to Salvadoran and Guatemalan migrants.

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My father emigrates from The Bahamas and gets his US citizenship. (Elodia Lunn)

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My parents came from Japan to the US to attend college. (Monami Nagai)

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Both my parents left Honduras by foot and came to the United States to later reside on Long Island. They left within a few years of each other, from the same hometown, but traveled without knowledge of the other being in the United States.
Both of them came for better economic opportunities. Specifically, mom had a son in Honduras so she wanted to make money to take care of him.
(Sherlyn)

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Both of my parents came to the United States. My mom, Laura Galvan, came from Mexico with no intention of actually staying here, she came here right out of college through a program that promised English language majors like herself the opportunity to continue their education in the English language and do a homestay (the program ended up being a scam). My dad, Mavroudis Benis, came from Greece after leaving his home island, Kalymnos, for personal reasons, and after finding himself dissatisfied with life in post-junta Athens. My parents met in Queens, New York soon after they each arrived in the United States (Alicia Benis).

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The Immigration Reform and Control Act gives amnesty to approximately three million undocumented residents. The act also makes it illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers.

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My great-uncle immigrates to NYC, becomes a legal citizen, and begins the process of bringing the whole of my paternal family, including my father, to America. (Sadia Haque)

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My parents immigrate from Jamaica

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My mother (alongside her parents and the 5 of her 6 siblings who were not already in the United States) migrated from Sylhet in Bangladesh to Brooklyn, New York. (Evanna Hasan, Fall 2024)

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Congress removes homosexuality as a reason to disqualify foreigners from immigrating to or visiting the U.S.

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My mother Gloria Flores and Antonio Chavez come to the United States from Guanajuato, Mexico in the early 1990s. My mother first arrives in Phoenix, Arizona and later arrives to Dallas, Texas where she meets my father. My father arrives immediately to Dallas from Mexico. Both of my parents come to the United States to find a job and other economic reasons. (Karen Chavez)

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My mother moves from Costa Rica to Baton Rouge, LA to pursue an MBA at LSU. She then moves to live in New Orleans (Joshua Smythe-Macaulay)

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My father, Harjap Sarpal, came to the U.S. in 1990 from Canada under the "false farmer" visa scheme, which led to him being classified as an illegal immigrant for over three decades. Because he did not have valid proof of entry, his case dragged on for years, even though he married my mother, who became a U.S. citizen in 1995. After multiple court battles, being scammed by lawyers under pretenses (and losing a five-figure sum), he finally gained legal status in 2018 and citizenship in 2021. His journey highlights the struggles many immigrants face due to flawed systems.

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Unsure of the exact year, but in the early 90s, my dad immigrates with his siblings to America and begins his life in NYC. He goes back to Bangladesh briefly in the late 90s/early 2000s, and meets and marries my mom. (Sadia Haque)

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My father Khalid Naji, and his family members return to the United States after witnessing and surviving the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), the Invasion of Kuwait (1990), the Gulf War (1990-91), and the 1991 Iraqi Uprisings. During these periods, travel was banned.

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My father moves from Sierra Leone to Fairfield Iowa to pursue an undergraduate degree at Maharishi international University. Then pursues an degree in architecture at LSU before moving to New Orleans (Joshua Smythe-Macaulay)

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The U.S. government implements a blockade strategy on the U.S.-Mexico border, forcing migrants to cross through the desert. To this day, scores of migrants die every year attempting to cross the border.

The blockade strategy includes several two pieces of legislation: Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold the Line.

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My father immigrated to the Bronx for better work opportunities and joined his family who had immigrated during his childhood. (Liliannie Ortiz)

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My father migrated to Passaic, New Jersey with his brothers from La Galarza, a small town in Puebla. My father comes from a lineage of farmers and agricultural workers, in sugar cane fields. An abandoned Bacardi factory lingers on the outskirts of the town. Labor and exhaustion often take priority over school & education.
My mother also migrated to Passaic, New Jersey, she's the third sibling that decided to move to the US, also from Puebla but in a closer town to Acatlan. While my mother finished high school, her family could not afford to send her to higher education. My parents fled their hometown to escape from the shackles of generational poverty. (Jennifer Guizar Bello)

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California voters pass Proposition 187, which prohibits providing public educational, welfare, and health services to undocumented immigrants. This proposition is later overturned as unconstitutional.

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Several major bills are passed, including The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which increases jailing of non-violent, non-criminal immigrants and allows for deportation based on minor crimes, resulting in the deportation of over 200,000 people. Welfare reform ends monetary and medical assistance for undocumented immigrants.

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My father moved to Atlanta, GA in May of 1998 from Pune, India with a travel visa for economic reasons. My mother came a few months later in September. (Alykhan Pirani)

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My brother who was 5 years old at the time came to America a year after my parents prior to which he had to live with my relatives in India since he couldn't get his visa for a while. (Alykhan Pirani)

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My mother and father immigrate from mainland China (Jiangsu province in southern China) to Miami, Florida for my father's post-grad at Florida International University. (Jenna Yuan)

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My grandfather immigrated from Dominican Republic to Manhattan, NY, and later on brought my dad, who would bring me and my mom in 2007.

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My mom begins a job at the US Mexican Embassy, and my parents move to Washington DC from Mexico City on diplomatic status

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My mother Shruk Abais, comes from Baghdad, Iraq through an I-130/marriage-based Visa after marrying my father, Khalid Naji.

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After doing his undergrad studies in Seoul, South Korea, my dad migrated to Chicago to do his MBA, and I was born there the following year. (Fiona Cho)

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After marrying my dad, my mom stays in Bangladesh to give birth to me, and then she and I immigrated to America with my cousin and aunt. (Sadia Haque)

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The September 11th attacks set the stage for "national security" based immigration policy. Congress passes the PATRIOT Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to detain suspected "terrorists" for unlimited periods of time, without access to legal representation. Over 1,200 Arab, Muslim, and South Asian men are detained in secret.

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My brothers Andres and Jose Gonzales come to the United States from Guanajuato, Mexico to be reunited with my mother after her arrival in the early 1990s. (Karen Chavez)

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My father's company sends him from Hong Kong to Albany, New York to continue his career. My mother and her dog accompanies him, and I am born during their stay. They ultimately return back to Hong Kong. (Charlotte Wu)

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When I am 2 my family decides to immigrate to Australia in hopes of securing a better future in a Western country. They pick Australia because it is relatively closer to China and the time difference is only 2 hours. It is too hard to even try and get US visas or citizenship. My father Wang Jiang remains in China to work and support his family, as he has little job prospects in Australia without Western qualifications and English skills. My mother Bin Zhang and I settle in a suburb of Sydney. (Emily Wang)

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Secure Communities (S-Comm) was first used in 2008 by the Department of Homeland Security to locate deportable immigrants who were in state or local jails. Under the Obama administration, the program was expanded and has resulted in tens of thousands of deportations. While S-Comm was described as targeting dangerous criminals, the majority of non-citizens targeted through the program committed minor offenses or had no criminal convictions. While Obama discontinued S-Comm, the Trump administration reinstated it in 2017.

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My maternal grandfather immigrates to America for a couple of years. He stays in America to get to know my siblings and I, as well as receive medical care for his lung problems. After a couple of years, he decided to go back to Bangladesh to live the rest of his life there. (Sadia Haque)