A time when states, not the federal government, ran immigration policy.

What is it about?

The article is explains why and how states, not the federal government, ran immigration policy from the founding up until 1891. Unlike the one set of federal laws we have today, in the 19th century, states had a wide variety of restrictions on the freedom of movement. Moreover, those restrictions do not resemble contemporary immigration laws and they took the form of public health and safety laws, slave laws, and laws regulating the poor and disabled.

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Why is it important?

Many assume that there was open borders until 1882 when the federal government started managing immigration. This assumption is wrong. In the 102 years after the founding and until the eve of the Civil War, states almost exclusively ran immigration policy. Unfortunately for certain classes of immigrants, this scenario meant more, not less restrictions for their freedom of movement because the variety of restrictions that the states concocted was multiplied by the federal system.