<P> This is a history of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States . Immigration is distinct from naturalization . For the first century of the United States' history, immigration to the country was unrestricted . Anyone could move into the United States, start a new life, pay taxes, participate in military service and conduct business . However, while the United States had an "open - borders" policy for the first century of its existence, meaning anyone could immigrate into the country without any restrictions, it had very clear naturalization laws from the first years of its existence . Anyone who wanted to vote or hold elective office had to be naturalized . That is, anyone could immigrate in, but only those who went through the naturalization process and became a citizen could vote or hold elective office . </P> <P> This set of policies, in which open immigration was permitted, but naturalization was tightly controlled, persisted until the 1870s and 1880s, when growing support for Darwinian eugenics eventually drove the US government to adopt immigration laws . These laws were intended to end the open immigration policy which the Founding Fathers had permitted, in favor of preventing "racial taint" from immigrants who entered from undesirable countries . The political movement which fought against "racial taint" was called "Progressivism", and included such luminaries as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson </P>

When did legal immigration start in the us
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