ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the American republic in the 1770s, states wrote their own immigration laws, following the practice of colonial days. The U.S. Constitution, drafted in 1787, did not enumerate federal responsibility for immigration law; however, it specified in Article I, section 8, that Congress shall make a uniform rule of naturalization. Thus, the earliest immigration-related federal legislation dealt with the rules for becoming a U.S. citizen rather than the grounds for admitting prospective immigrants. The understanding was that the Constitution reserved jurisdiction over immigration to the states.
