A nation of immigrants.

• Position: GRAPH > NATIONAL

The vast majority of Americans can trace their roots to immigrants from other nations. But for much of American history, immigration has been the subject of heated debate. In the 18th century, long before the restrictive Naturalization Act of 1790, Benjamin Franklin railed against the number of immigrants from Germany.

In tater years--1882, 1917, 1924, and 1934--different laws at different times excluded migrants from China, Japan, India, and the Philippines. Today, the debate is about undocumented, or illegal, immigrants.

The dip in immigration coincides with a 1921 taw that restricted the number of immigrants from various nations to no more than 3 percent of the number of people from those nations who were living in the U.S. in 1910. The rise coincides with a 1977 law abolishing different quotas for the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

1. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population in the U.S. in 1900 was about 76 million. About how many millions of these were immigrants?

   (a) 10.6 (c) 12.2 (b) 9.1 (d) 13.3 2. About how many millions of U.S. residents were immigrants in 1930, when the country's population was about 123 million?

   (a) 18.3 (c) 16.5 (b) 17.5...