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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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longz
To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1566469)10/19/2025 12:53:58 PM
From: Maple MAGA 1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) of 1570333
 
"The Founding Fathers greatness put no restrictions on immigration."

Really?

What restrictions were in place early on
  1. Naturalization Act of 1790:

  2. Naturalization Act of 1795:

  3. No broad immigration-entry exclusion in those very early years:

    • The early U.S. did not have a robust system of excluding immigrants from entering (or specifying many prohibited classes) until later in the 19th century. USCIS+2Hillsdale College+2

    • For example, aside from the naturalization laws, there wasn’t a large federal regime restricting who could immigrate in the 1790s and early 1800s. Cato Institute+1

  4. Ideological attitudes of key figures:

    • Some Founders expressed fairly open views toward immigration. For instance, Thomas Jefferson wrote that America “should not refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress … that hospitality” which was offered to earlier settlers. The Washington Post+1

    • Scholars note that the Founding era “willingness to admit foreigners” is visible in the early laws. Hillsdale College+1
Important caveats and limitations
  • The naturalization laws were restrictive in terms of race: only “free white persons” were eligible for citizenship in 1790. That excluded non-white immigrants. migrationpolicy.org+1

  • These laws regulated how immigrants could become citizens, not fully how many or which immigrants could enter the country. So the “immigration” restrictions were relatively light compared to later quotas and exclusion laws.

  • The early regime left a lot of power to the states initially (immigration/naturalization issues) rather than a strong federal “immigration control” regime. Hillsdale College
Summary In short: yes — the Founders and early Congress did pass laws that restricted certain aspects of immigration/naturalization (especially citizenship eligibility). But the restrictions were much narrower than what came later (e.g., large federal exclusion acts, racism-based quotas). The early policy was moderately open, especially in terms of welcoming immigrants, albeit with certain racial and residency qualification restrictions.

If you like, I can check which Founders argued for or against immigration restrictions, and how the debates evolved in the early Republic. Would you like me to pull that together?
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