US Congress passed first law regulating immigration

On August 3, 1882, Congress passed the first federal law regulating immigration. Under the statute, state-run boards under contract to the US Secretary of the Treasury were to inspect immigrants according to rules that were uniform in all ports. Boards were prohibited from admitting any immigrant found to be a “convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge.”

Learn more about eugenics laws restricting immigration.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Trial of former-Yugoslavia leader Slobodan Milošević begins

On February 12, 2002, the trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Yugoslavia, began at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Milošević was indicted on sixty-six counts of war crimes allegedly perpetrated during the Balkan civil wars of the 1990s, including allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial ended without a verdict, when Milosevic died of a heart attack during the proceedings. Read ICTY documents from the trial of Slobodan Milošević.

Congress passed Fugitive Slave Law

On February 12, 1793, the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, prohibiting anyone from assisting a runaway slave.