Even before there was a USA, some immigrants had to sign papers promising to obey the laws of the colony. Folks on my dad’s side came to Pennsylvania from what is now Germany in the 1700’s. The English colonists got worried about the influx of the German-speaking immigrants William Penn was recruiting so a law was passed requiring ship’s captains to keep a list of those immigrants and to require the immigrants to sign an oath to obey the English laws before they were allowed to disembark.
(Side note: As is common with immigrant groups, the German speakers soon moved to an area to be near each other. To this day, that section of Philadelphia is called Germantown. Later, many of those immigrants moved to better farm land and became known as the “Pennsylvania Dutch”. Their moral home life, work ethics & refusal to participate in or accept government financial services is legendary.)
“Their moral home life, work ethics & refusal to participate in or accept government financial services is legendary.)”
So true. I remember when we were struggling to pay the bills, welfare was around, but for us it was not an option. My parents moonlighted as cleaning people rather than enter the welfare system (which they considered a personal failure). Within several years we were on our feet. Now they are upper middle class. That’s the way America works.