America’s Immigration Quandary
The unsung role of the National Archives
Babe Ruth’s draft card. Al Capone’s guilty verdict. Edgar Allen Poe’s 1842 bankruptcy petition. A 1909 letter from “Buffalo Bill” Cody to James Garfield, Secretary of the Interior (and future US president). Minutes from the November 12, 1718, trial of the pirate Stede Bonnet.
These are a few of the fascinating documents from American history held by the National Archives and Records Administration (along with, of course, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). NARA was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 to maintain the records of the US government, which had previously resided in “various basements, attics, abandoned buildings, and other storage places.”
There are a lot of things that people don’t know about NARA. One is that it holds millions of records pertaining to immigration and naturalization.
These are the records of people who became Americans.
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History of Immigration Records
Immigration is as old as the United States itself. Over 86 million legal immigrants arrived from 1783 to 2019, with 1–2 million per year since. Many of those have become naturalized citizens, a process that has changed a lot over the years.
During the “Old Law” period (1790–1906), there was no federal oversight. Early naturalization laws allowed any court, including city, county, and state courts, to grant citizenship. Certificates and other documentation were not standardized or even required.
In 1906, Congress passed the Basic Naturalization Act, which took effect on September 27. It created a new office, the Naturalization Service, to standardize the naturalization process, which all courts were then required to follow. One of these standards was a certificate of citizenship for every naturalized person.
Typically, naturalization was a two-step process. After living in the United States for two years, a person could file a “declaration of intention” to become a citizen. After three more years, the person then petitioned for naturalization, after which the court would grant a certificate of citizenship, also called a certificate of naturalization.
On April 1, 1956, responsibility for naturalization moved from the courts to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is now the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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NARA’s Immigration Records
Immigration and naturalization records are important because they document a person’s quest to become a United States citizen. This is critical for researchers who are tracing a person’s background or compiling a family history.
The records can reveal clues about a person’s occupation, marital status, and other vital details. Records that prove a person’s citizenship are important because naturalized citizens have more protections and enjoy more privileges, such as the ability to get a passport, than noncitizens. Finally, immigration and naturalization records can answer questions about how our country has handled this serious business across the centuries.
One type is immigration records. These date back to the earliest days of the United States. Documentation was sporadic until 1819 because there was no central agency creating and maintaining records of immigrants.
Then, Congress passed the Steerage Act, which required ship captains to maintain lists of passengers who boarded at foreign ports. The Immigration Acts of 1882 and 1891 regulated the coastal borders and the Canadian and Mexican land borders, respectively, introducing further documentation requirements.
Of those documents, NARA holds:
- Passenger arrival records (1800–1982)
- Canadian border crossing records (1895–1954)
- Mexican border crossing records (1903–1955)
Anything after 1982 is available from USCIS only.
For naturalization records, no central index exists, thanks to the pre-1956 patchwork of court orders. Records issued by a federal court should reside in the National Archives facility serving the state in which the court is located. (NARA does not have naturalization records issued by nonfederal courts.) Post-1956 records can be requested through the USCIS Genealogy Program.
A cool example of a US naturalization record is the declaration of intention for the Von Trapp family, completed and signed by Maria Von Trapp. The Von Trapps were, of course, the inspiration for the movie The Sound of Music (which changed a lot about their story).
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Other Available Records
These days, citizens of other countries who want to visit the United States generally need a US visa. Historically, however, no visa was needed. The practice of requiring visas began in 1917 as a war measure during World War I. Visas have been handled by a dedicated Department of State office since 1918.
Some aliens arrive from Mars; others come from more terrestrial locations, like Mexico or Europe. These files pertain to that latter category. Created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) beginning in 1944, “A-Files,” as they are called, contain the records of any active case of a not-yet-naturalized alien. These files may include visas, photographs, affidavits, and correspondence leading up to an alien’s naturalization, permanent residency, death, or deportation.
Citizens or subjects of countries with which the United States is at war are deemed “enemy aliens” — i.e., British subjects during the War of 1812; German nationals and their allies during World War I; and German, Italian, and Japanese during World War II. In addition, some naturalized or American-born citizens were considered enemy aliens based on familial descent. This designation subjects the aliens to increased scrutiny and, therefore, increased recordkeeping. These records are from the World War I and World War II periods.
Passport applications can be an excellent source of genealogical information, especially about foreign-born individuals. NARA has passport applications from 1795–1925. Post-1925 records are held by the US Department of State.
News about the National Archives and Records Administration hasn’t been good in recent years. First, it clashed with Donald Trump over records that he took, possibly illegally, from the White House. Now, Trump has fired the agency’s chief and is working on the rest of the agency.
This is unfortunate. The country needs a well-staffed, well-funded NARA to preserve its past. Immigration, another of Trump’s targets, is a critical part of that past. We need NARA’s records to help chart its future.
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