Chinese Exclusion Act - wikipedia Chinese Exclusion Act This article is about the former U.S. law. For the similar Canadian law, see Chinese Immigration Act, 1923. Not to be confused with Asian Exclusion Act. Chinese Exclusion Act Long title An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese. Nicknames Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 Enacted by the 47th United States Congress Effective May 6, 1882 Citations Public law 47 - 126 Statutes at Large 22 Stat. 58 Legislative history Introduced in the House as H.R. 5804 by Horace F. Page ( R -- CA ) on April 12, 1882 Committee consideration by House Foreign Relations Passed the house on April 17, 1882 ( 202 - 37 ) Passed the Senate on April 28, 1882 ( 32 - 15 ) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on May 3, 1882 ( Agreed ) Signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882 Political cartoon : Uncle Sam kicks out the Chinaman, referring to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Image published in 19th century. The first page of the Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. The act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, a set of revisions to the US -- China Burlingame Treaty of 1868 that allowed the US to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States. It was repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943. Contents 1 Background 2 Content 3 The `` Driving Out '' Period 3.1 Rock Springs Massacre of 1885 3.2 Snake River Massacre of 1887 3.2. 1 Horner and Findley Accounts 3.2. 2 The bodies 3.2. 3 The Aftermath 3.2. 4 Current updates 4 Issues of the Act 5 Bubonic Plague in Chinatown 6 Repeal and current status 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 9.1 Primary sources 10 External links Background Main article : History of Chinese Americans This `` Official Map of Chinatown 1885 '' was published as part of an official report of a Special Committee established by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors `` on the Condition of the Chinese Quarter ''. Chinese immigrant workers building the Transcontinental Railroad The first significant Chinese immigration to North America began with the California Gold Rush of 1848 -- 1855 and it continued with subsequent large labor projects, such as the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad. During the early stages of the gold rush, when surface gold was plentiful, the Chinese were tolerated, if not well received. As gold became harder to find and competition increased, animosity toward the Chinese and other foreigners increased however. After being forcibly driven from mining by a mixture of state legislators and other miners ( the Foreign Miner 's Tax ), the immigrant Chinese began to settle in enclaves in cities, mainly San Francisco, and took up low - wage labor, such as restaurant and laundry work. With the post-Civil War economy in decline by the 1870s, anti-Chinese animosity became politicized by labor leader Denis Kearney and his Workingman 's Party as well as by California Governor John Bigler, both of whom blamed Chinese `` coolies '' for depressed wage levels. Public opinion and law in California began to demonize Chinese workers and immigrants in any role, with the later half of the 1800s seeing a series of ever more restrictive laws being placed on Chinese labor, behavior and even living conditions. While many of these legislative efforts were quickly overturned by the State Supreme Court, many more anti-Chinese laws continued to be passed in both California and nationally. In the early 1850s there was resistance to the idea of excluding Chinese migrant workers from immigration because they provided essential tax revenue which helped fill the fiscal gap of California. But toward the end of the decade, the financial situation improved and subsequently, attempts to legislate Chinese exclusion became successful on the state level. In 1858, the California Legislature passed a law that made it illegal for any person `` of the Chinese or Mongolian races '' to enter the state ; however, this law was struck down by an unpublished opinion of the State Supreme Court in 1862. The Chinese immigrant workers provided cheap labor and did not use any of the government infrastructure ( schools, hospitals, etc. ) because the Chinese migrant population was predominantly made up of healthy male adults. As time passed and more and more Chinese migrants arrived in California, violence would often break out in cities such as Los Angeles. At one point, Chinese men represented nearly a quarter of all wage - earning workers in California, and by 1878 Congress felt compelled to try and ban immigration from China in legislation that was later vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1879 however, California adopted a new Constitution, which explicitly authorized the state government to determine which individuals were allowed to reside in the state, and banned the Chinese from employment by corporations and state, county or municipal governments. Though there is great debate over whether the anti-Chinese animus in California drove the federal government ( the California Thesis ), or whether Chinese racism was simply inherent in the country at that point, by 1882 the federal government was finally convinced to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning all immigration from China for a period of 10 years. After the act was passed, most Chinese families were faced with a dilemma : stay in the United States alone or go back to China to reunite with their families. Although widespread dislike for the Chinese persisted well after the law itself was passed, of note is that some capitalists and entrepreneurs resisted their exclusion because they accepted lower wages. Content This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2017 ) For the first time, federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. ( The earlier Page Act of 1875 had prohibited immigration of Asian forced laborers and sex workers, and the Naturalization Act of 1790 prohibited naturalization of non-white subjects. ) The Act excluded Chinese laborers, meaning `` skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining, '' from entering the country for ten years under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. Front page of The San Francisco Call - November 20th 1901, Chinese Exclusion Convention The Chinese Exclusion Act required the few non laborers who sought entry to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to emigrate. However, this group found it increasingly difficult to prove that they were not laborers because the 1882 act defined excludables as `` skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining. '' Thus very few Chinese could enter the country under the 1882 law. Diplomatic officials and other officers on business, along with their house servants, for the Chinese government were also allowed entry as long as they had the proper certification verifying their credentials. The Act also affected the Chinese who had already settled in the United States. Any Chinese who left the United States had to obtain certifications for reentry, and the Act made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship. After the Act 's passage, Chinese men in the U.S. had little chance of ever reuniting with their wives, or of starting families in their new abodes. Amendments made in 1884 tightened the provisions that allowed previous immigrants to leave and return, and clarified that the law applied to ethnic Chinese regardless of their country of origin. The Scott Act ( 1888 ) expanded upon the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting reentry after leaving the U.S. Constitutionality of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Scott Act was upheld by the Supreme Court in Chae Chan Ping v. United States ( 1889 ) ; the Supreme Court declared that `` the power of exclusion of foreigners ( is ) an incident of sovereignty belonging to the government of the United States as a part of those sovereign powers delegated by the constitution. '' The Act was renewed for ten years by the 1892 Geary Act, and again with no terminal date in 1902. When the act was extended in 1902, it required `` each Chinese resident to register and obtain a certificate of residence. Without a certificate, he or she faced deportation. '' Between 1882 and 1905, about 10,000 Chinese appealed against negative immigration decisions to federal court, usually via a petition for habeas corpus. In most of these cases, the courts ruled in favor of the petitioner. Except in cases of bias or negligence, these petitions were barred by an act that passed Congress in 1894 and was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. vs Lem Moon Sing ( 1895 ). In U.S. vs Ju Toy ( 1905 ), the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that the port inspectors and the Secretary of Commerce had final authority on who could be admitted. Ju Toy 's petition was thus barred despite the fact that the district court found that he was an American citizen. The Supreme Court determined that refusing entry at a port does not require due process and is legally equivalent to refusing entry at a land crossing. All these developments, along with the extension of the act in 1902, triggered a boycott of U.S. goods in China between 1904 and 1906. There was one 1885 case in San Francisco, however, in which Treasury Department officials in Washington overturned a decision to deny entry to two Chinese students. One of the critics of the Chinese Exclusion Act was the anti-slavery / anti-imperialist Republican Senator George Frisbie Hoar of Massachusetts who described the Act as `` nothing less than the legalization of racial discrimination. '' It was primarily meant to retain white superiority especially with regards to working privileges. The laws were driven largely by racial concerns ; immigration of persons of other races was unlimited during this period. Another reason why this Act was enacted was due to the fact that American citizens faced higher unemployment as compared to workers of Chinese decent mostly in the West Coast. On the other hand, many people strongly supported the Chinese Exclusion Act, including the Knights of Labor, a labor union, who supported it because it believed that industrialists were using Chinese workers as a wedge to keep wages low. Among labor and leftist organizations, the Industrial Workers of the World were the sole exception to this pattern. The IWW openly opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act from its inception in 1905. A political cartoon from 1882, showing a Chinese man being barred entry to the `` Golden Gate of Liberty ''. The caption reads, `` We must draw the line somewhere, you know. '' Certificate of identity issued to Yee Wee Thing certifying that he is the son of a US citizen, issued Nov. 21, 1916. This was necessary for his immigration from China to the United States. For all practical purposes, the Exclusion Act, along with the restrictions that followed it, froze the Chinese community in place in 1882. Limited immigration from China continued until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station on what is now Angel Island State Park in San Francisco Bay served as the processing center for most of the 56,113 Chinese immigrants who are recorded as immigrating or returning from China ; upwards of 30 % more who showed up were returned to China. Angel Island State Park was where the Chinese immigrants were accepted to stay in the United States or made to leave. Furthermore, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed City Hall and the Hall of Records, many immigrants ( known as `` paper sons '' ) claimed that they had familial ties to resident Chinese - American citizens. Whether these were true or not can not be proven. The Chinese Exclusion Act gave rise to the first great wave of commercial human smuggling, an activity that later spread to include other national and ethnic groups. The Chinese Exclusion Act also led to an expansion of the power of U.S. immigration law through its influence on Canada 's policies on Chinese exclusion during this time because of the need for greater vigilance at the U.S. - Canada border. Shortly after the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act, Canada established the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 which imposed a head tax on Chinese migrants entering Canada. After increasing pressure from the U.S. government, Canada finally established the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 which banned most forms of immigration by the Chinese to Canada. There was also a need for this kind of border control along the U.S - Mexico border, however, efforts to control the border went along a different path because Mexico was fearful of expanding imperial power of the U.S. and did not want U.S. interference in Mexico. Not only this, but Chinese immigration to Mexico was welcomed because the Chinese immigrants filled Mexico 's labor needs. The Chinese Exclusion Act actually led to heightened Chinese immigration to Mexico because of exclusion by the U.S. Therefore, the U.S. resorted to heavily policing the border along Mexico. Later, the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration even further, excluding all classes of Chinese immigrants and extending restrictions to other Asian immigrant groups. Until these restrictions were relaxed in the middle of the twentieth century, Chinese immigrants were forced to live a life separated from their families, and to build ethnic enclaves in which they could survive on their own ( Chinatown ). The Chinese Exclusion Act did not address the problems that whites were facing ; in fact, the Chinese were quickly and eagerly replaced by the Japanese, who assumed the role of the Chinese in society. Unlike the Chinese, some Japanese were even able to climb the rungs of society by setting up businesses or becoming truck farmers. However, the Japanese were later targeted in the National Origins Act of 1924, which banned immigration from east Asia entirely. In 1891 the Government of China refused to accept the U.S. Senator Mr. Henry W. Blair as U.S. Minister to China due to his abusive remarks regarding China during negotiation of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The American Christian Rev. Dr. George F. Pentecost spoke out against western imperialism in China, saying : I personally feel convinced that it would be a good thing for America if the embargo on Chinese immigration were removed. I think that the annual admission of 100,000 into this country would be a good thing for the country. And if the same thing were done in the Philippines those islands would be a veritable Garden of Eden in twenty - five years. The presence of Chinese workmen in this country would, in my opinion, do a very great deal toward solving our labor problems. There is no comparison between the Chinaman, even of the lowest coolie class, and the man who comes here from Southeastern Europe, from Russia, or from Southern Italy. The Chinese are thoroughly good workers. That is why the laborers here hate them. I think, too, that the emigration to America would help the Chinese. At least he would come into contact with some real Christian people in America. The Chinaman lives in squalor because he is poor. If he had some prosperity his squalor would cease. The `` Driving out '' period Following the passed legislation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a period known as the `` Driving Out '' era was born. In this period, many anti-Chinese Americans sought out to physically force the Chinese communities to flee to other areas. Many of these outbreaks occurred in the Western states. The Rock Springs Chinese Massacre and the Snake River Massacre of 1887 are two notable events in history. Rock Springs massacre of 1885 In 1885, many angry white miners in Sweetwater County, Wyoming felt threatened by the Chinese and blamed them for their unemployment. As a result of the job competition, white miners expressed their frustration in physical violence where they robbed, shot, and stabbed at Chinese in Chinatown. The Chinese quickly tried to flee but in doing so, many ended up burned alive in their homes, starved to death in hidden refuge, or exposed to animal predators of the mountains. Some were successfully rescued by the passing train and by the end of the event, at least twenty - eight lives were sacrificed. In an attempt to appease the situation, the government intervened by sending federal troops to protect the Chinese. However, following the event, only compensations for destroyed property were paid. No - one was arrested nor held accountable for the atrocities committed during the riot. Snake River massacre of 1887 The massacre itself gained its name due to its location along the Snake River in Hells Canyon by Deep creek. The area inhabits many rocky cliffs and soaring white rapids that all pose as dangerous threats to humans who ventured into the area. Thirty - four Chinese miners who were employed by Sam Yong company, one of the six largest Chinese companies at the time, worked in this area since October of 1886. An accurate account of the event is still unclear to this day secondary to unreliable law enforcement at the time, biased news reporting, and lack of serious official investigations. However, it is speculated that the dead Chinese miners were not victims of natural causes but rather victims of gun shot wounds and robbery from seven armed horse thieves. An amount of gold worth $4,000 - $5,000 was estimated to be stolen from the miners. The whereabouts of the gold were never recovered nor further investigated. Recently, attempts to formulate an accurate picture of the event were drawn from hidden copies of trial documents that contained grand jury indictment, depositions given by the accused, notes from the trial, and historical accounts of Wallowa County by J. Harland Horner and H. Ross Findley. Horner and Findley accounts Horner and Findley were both schoolboys at the time of the massacre but their accounts had glaring discrepancies. Findley believed the massacre was a planned event with more than just a motive to steal gold from the Chinese miners. He believed the arrested culprits wanted to eliminate the Chinese miners from the area as well, which they successfully accomplished. In contrast to most accounts, Findley only recalled 31 confirmed victims and there was no mention of a trial. On the other hand, Horner believed that the event was a spur of the moment event and affected 34 confirmed victims. The school boys initially only had intentions to steal horses but experienced difficulty crossing the river with the stolen horses. When the Chinese miners refused to loan their boats, the boys decided to take the boats by force. The bodies Other disagreements on the motives could also be attributed to the fact that the bodies of the Chinese miners were only found downstream after two weeks. It is unclear if the mangled bodies found were due to human manslaughter or the aftermath of being thrown into turbulent waters. The rapids and brute force of the current could have mangled the bodies against the rocks. However, it is confirmed that the Chinese men were shot secondary to the gunshot wounds found on the bodies. Only ten bodies were identified on February 16, 1888 : Chea - po, Chea - Sun, Chea - Yow, Chea - Shun, Chea Cheong, Chea Ling, Chea Chow, Chea Lin Chung, Kong Mun Kow, and Kong Ngan. Little is known about these identified men. The aftermath Shortly following the incident, Sam Yup company of San Francisco hired Lee Loi who later hired Joseph K. Vincent, then U.S. Commissioner, to lead an investigation. Vincent submitted his investigation report to the Chinese consulate who unsuccessfully obtained justice for the Chinese miners. At around the same time, other compensation reports were also unsuccessfully filed for earlier crimes inflicted on the Chinese. In the end, on October 19th, 1888, Congress agreed to greatly under - compensate for the massacre and ignore the claims for the earlier crimes. Even though the amount was greatly underpaid, it was still a small victory to the Chinese who had low expectations for relief or acknowledgement. Current updates The US Board on Geographic Names officially named the Deep Creek massacre site to the Chinese Massacre Cove. This served as the first ever official recognition of the crime. Additionally in June 2012, a memorial was established with private funds and donations for the Chinese miners that were murdered. Issues of the Act The Chinese Exclusion Act brought rigidity not only to the Chinese alone but to Caucasians and other races as well which lasted for about thirty years. The American economy suffered a great loss as a result of this Act. The Act was a sign of injustice and unfair treatment to the Chinese workers because the jobs they engaged in were mostly menial jobs. Bubonic Plague in Chinatown The Bubonic Plague outbreak in San Francisco Chinatown strengthened Anti-Chinese sentiment in all of California despite science research at the time showing it was caused by some kind of `` germ ''. When the first round of people died from this plague, the companies and the state denied the fact that there was a plague, eventually other states knew what was going on and stopped trading with California. The blame was put on the Chinese community. The plague did not derive from Chinatown. It was due to the unsanitary conditions and population density that outbreaks such as this one were spread quickly, and therefore affected a large number of people in this community. ( 1 ) Its first deaths in San Francisco were in 1898, a ship from a French bark had some passengers who had died of the plague. After its arrival in San Francisco, 18 more Chinatown residents died of the same symptoms. The mayor decided not to release a public Warning of the outbreak, thinking it would affect San Francisco 's commercial business. Chinatown was quarantined, and sanitary services were suspended for some time until presence of bacteriological source was found. A sanitary campaign was launched, however many residents chose to avoid anything and everything that had to do with the plague due to fear and humiliation. As more and more deaths occurred, the city began being more aggressive, and they started checking nearly everyone in Chinatown for any signs of disease. Therefore the Chinese community began to distrust the government even more Repeal and current status The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by the 1943 Magnuson Act, during a time when China had become an ally of the U.S. against Japan in World War II. This repeal also occurred in the context of World War II, during which the U.S. fought against German Nazism and needed to embody an image of fairness and justice, and also during a time when the Japanese were becoming vilified. The Magnuson Act permitted Chinese nationals already residing in the country to become naturalized citizens and stop hiding from the threat of deportation. While the Magnuson Act overturned the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act, it only allowed a national quota of 105 Chinese immigrants per year, and did not repeal the restrictions on immigration from the other Asian countries. Large scale Chinese immigration did not occur until the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The crackdown on Chinese immigrants reached a new level in its last decade, from 1956 -- 1965, with the Chinese Confession Program launched by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, that encouraged Chinese who had committed immigration fraud to confess, so as to be eligible for some leniency in treatment. Despite the fact that the exclusion act was repealed in 1943, the law in California prohibiting non-whites from marrying whites was not struck down until 1948, in which the California Supreme Court ruled the ban of interracial marriage within the state unconstitutional in Perez v. Sharp. Other states had such laws until 1967, when the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws across the nation are unconstitutional. Even today, although all its constituent sections have long been repealed, Chapter 7 of Title 8 of the United States Code is headed `` Exclusion of Chinese. '' It is the only chapter of the 15 chapters in Title 8 ( Aliens and Nationality ) that is completely focused on a specific nationality or ethnic group. Like the following Chapter 8, `` The Cooly Trade '', it consists entirely of statutes that are noted as `` Repealed '' or `` Omitted. '' On June 18, 2012, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution which had been introduced by Congresswoman Judy Chu, that formally expresses the regret of the House of Representatives for the Chinese Exclusion Act, an act which imposed almost total restrictions on Chinese immigration and naturalization and denied Chinese - Americans basic freedoms because of their ethnicity. The resolution had been approved by the U.S. Senate in October 2011. In 2014, the California Legislature took formal action to pass measures that formally recognize the many proud accomplishments of Chinese - Americans in California and to call upon Congress to formally apologize for the 1882 adoption of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff ( R - Diamond Bar ) and incoming Senate President pro-Tem Kevin de León ( D - Los Angeles ) served as Joint Authors for Senate Joint Resolution ( SJR ) 23 and Senate Concurrent Resolution ( SCR ) 122. SJR 23 acknowledges and celebrates the history and contributions of Chinese Americans in California. The resolution also formally calls on Congress to apologize for laws which resulted in the persecution of Chinese Americans, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. Perhaps most importantly is the sociological implications for understanding ethnic / race relations in the context of American history : there is a tendency for minorities to be punished in times of economic, political and / or geopolitical crises. Times of social and systemic stability, however, tend to mute whatever underlying tensions exist between different groups. In times of societal crisis -- whether perceived or real -- patterns or retractability of American identities have erupted to the forefront of America 's political landscape, often generating institutional and civil society backlash against workers from other nations, a pattern documented by Fong 's research into how crises drastically alter social relationships. See also Anti-Chinese legislation in the United States Chinese Confession Program Chinese exclusion policy of NASA Chinese massacre of 1871 Head tax ( Canada ) List of United States immigration laws Paper Sons Rock Springs massacre Sinophobia United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that the Chinese Exclusion Act could not overrule the citizenship of those born in the U.S. to Chinese parents Lau Ow Bew v. United States, which held that returning merchants did not need paperwork from China. Yamataya v. Fisher ( Japanese Immigrant Case ) Yellow Peril Executive Order 13769 References Jump up ^ Norton, Henry K. ( 1924 ). The Story of California From the Earliest Days to the Present. Chicago : A.C. McClurg & Co. pp. 283 -- 296. Archived from the original on 2008 - 05 - 09. Jump up ^ Pioneer Laundry Workers Assembly, K of L. Washington, D.C. `` China 's menace to the world : from the forum : to the public ''. The Library of Congress : American Memory. The Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 November 2017. Jump up ^ Kearney, Denis ( 28 February 1878 ). `` Appeal from California. The Chinese Invasion. Workingmen 's Address ''. Indianapolis Times. Retrieved 5 May 2014. Jump up ^ `` 1855 Cal. Stat. 194 Capitation Tax '' ( PDF ). UC Hastings College of the Law Library Summer 2001. UC Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved 30 November 2017. ^ Jump up to : Kanazawa, Mark ( September 2005 ). `` Immigration, Exclusion, and Taxation : Anti-Chinese Legislation in Gold Rush California ''. The Journal of Economic History. Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association. 65 ( 3 ) : 779 -- 805. JSTOR 3875017. Jump up ^ `` Text of the Chinese Exclusion Act '' ( PDF ). University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 2014 - 05 - 05. Retrieved 2014 - 05 - 05. Jump up ^ Salyer, L ( 1995 ). Law Harsh as Tigers : Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law. Chapell Hill : The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978 - 0807845301. Jump up ^ `` Constitution of the State of California, 1879 '' ( PDF ). Archived from the original ( PDF ) on 2013 - 05 - 16. Jump up ^ Chew, Kenneth ; Liu, John ( March 2004 ). `` Hidden in Plain Sight : Global Labor Force Exchange in the Chinese American Population, 1880 -- 1940 ''. Population and Development Review. Population Council. 30 ( 1 ) : 57 -- 78. JSTOR 3401498. Jump up ^ Miller, Joaquin ( December 1901 ). `` The Chinese and the Exclusion Act ''. The North American Review. University of Northern Iowa. 173 ( 541 ) : 782 -- 789. JSTOR 25105257. ^ Jump up to : `` Exclusion ''. Library of Congress. 2003 - 09 - 01. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 25. ^ Jump up to : `` The People 's Vote : Chinese Exclusion Act ( 1882 ) ''. U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on 28 March 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2014. Jump up ^ Transcript of Chinese Exclusion Act ( 1882 ) ^ Jump up to : Daniels, Roger ( Spring 1999 ). `` Book Review : Laws Harsh as Tigers : Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law -- Lucy E. Salyer ''. Archived from the original on 2012 - 09 - 25. Jump up ^ Lee, Jonathan H.X. ( 2015 ). Chinese Americans : The History and Culture of a People. ABC - CLIO. p. 26. ISBN 978 - 1610695497. Jump up ^ Lee, Erika ( 2003 ). At America 's Gates : Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882 -- 1943. University of North Carolina Press. p. 51. ISBN 978 - 0807827758. Jump up ^ Daniels, Roger ( 2002 ). Coming to America : A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. Harper Perennial. p. 271. ISBN 978 - 0060505776. Jump up ^ `` Chinese Exclusion Act ''. History.com. 2009. Retrieved December 7, 2017. Jump up ^ Chin, Gabriel J. ( 1998 ). `` Segregation 's Last Stronghold : Race Discrimination and the Constitutional Law of Immigration ''. UCLA Law Review. 46 ( 1 ). SSRN 1121119. Jump up ^ `` Immigration to the United States, 1789 - 1930 ''. Harvard university library open collections program. Jump up ^ Kennedy, David M. ; Cohen, Lizabeth ; Bailey, Thomas A. ( 2002 ). The American Pageant ( 12th ed. ). New York : Houghton Mifflin Company. Jump up ^ Choi, Jennifer Jung Hee ( 1999 ). `` The Rhetoric of Inclusion : The I.W.W. and Asian Workers '' ( PDF ). Ex Post Facto : Journal of the History Students at San Francisco State University. 8 : 9. Jump up ^ Dunigan, Grace ( January 1, 2017 ). `` The Chinese Exclusion Act : Why It Matters Today ''. Scholarly commons. 8 : 5. Jump up ^ Zhang, Sheldon ( 2007 ). Smuggling and trafficking in human beings : all roads lead to America. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 69. ISBN 978 - 0 - 275 - 98951 - 4. Jump up ^ Brinkley, Alan. American History : A Survey ( 12th ed. ). ISBN 978 - 0073280479. Jump up ^ Denza, Eileen ( 2008 ). Commentary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ( Third ed. ). Oxford University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978 - 0199216857. Jump up ^ `` America Not A Christian Nation, Says Dr. Pentecost ''. The New York Times. February 11, 1912. Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. ^ Jump up to : Iris., Chang, ( 2004 ) ( 2003 ). The Chinese in America : a narrative history. New York : Penguin. ISBN 0142004170. OCLC 55136302. ^ Jump up to : `` R. Gregory Nokes `` A Most Daring Outrage '' : Murders at Chinese Massacre Cove, 1887 Oregon Historical Quarterly, 107.3 The History Cooperative ``. 2007 - 01 - 28. Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 08. Jump up ^ Tian, Kelly. `` The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Its Impact on North American Society ''. 9. Jump up ^ Tian, Kelly. `` The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Its Impact on North American Society ''. 9. Jump up ^ Bodenner, Chris ( February 6, 2013 ). `` Chinese Exclusion Act ; Issues and Controversies in American History '' ( PDF ) : 5. Jump up ^ Risse, Guenter B. ( 2012 ). Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco Chinatown. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Jump up ^ Chin, Gabriel ; Karthikeyan, Hrishi ( 2002 ). `` Preserving Racial Identity : Population Patterns and the Application of Anti-Miscegenation Statutes to Asian Americans, 1910 -- 1950 ''. Asian Law Journal. Social Science Research Network. 9. SSRN 283998. Jump up ^ See Perez v. Sharp, 32 Cal. 2d 711 ( 1948 ). Jump up ^ `` US CODE - TITLE 8 - ALIENS AND NATIONALITY ''. FindLaw. Retrieved 5 May 2014. Jump up ^ 112th Congress ( 2012 ) ( June 8, 2012 ). `` H. Res. 683 ( 112th ) ''. Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved August 9, 2012. Expressing the regret of the House of Representatives for the passage of laws that adversely affected the Chinese in the United States, including the Chinese Exclusion Act. Jump up ^ `` US apologizes for Chinese Exclusion Act '' China Daily, 19 June 2012 Jump up ^ `` Legislature Recognizes the Contributions of Chinese - Americans & Apologizes for Past Discriminatory Laws ''. California State Senate Republican Caucus. August 19, 2014. Archived from the original on 2016 - 07 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Bill Text ''. ca.gov. Jump up ^ Fong, Jack ( April 2008 ). `` American Social ' Reminders ' of Citizenship after September 11, 2001 : Nativisms in the Ethnocratic Retractability of American Identity '' ( PDF ). Qualitative Sociology Review. 4 ( 1 ) : 69 -- 91. Further reading Chan, Sucheng ed. In Entry Denied : Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882 - 1943 ( Temple UP, 1994 ). Gyory, Andrew. Closing the gate : Race, politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act ( U of North Carolina Press, 1998 ). Hsu, Madeline Y. The good immigrants : How the yellow peril became the model minority ( Princeton UP, 2015 ). Kil, Sang Hea. `` Fearing yellow, imagining white : media analysis of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. '' Social Identities 18.6 ( 2012 ) : 663 - 677. Lee, Erika. `` The ' Yellow Peril ' and Asian Exclusion in the Americas. '' Pacific Historical Review 76.4 ( 2007 ) : 537 - 562. in JSTOR Li Bo. Beyond the Heavenly Kingdom is an historical novel that focuses on the politics of the Chinese Exclusion Act ISBN 1541232216 Perry, Jay. `` The Chinese question : California, British Columbia, and the making of transnational immigration policy, 1847 - 1885 '' ( PhD. Diss. Bowling Green State University, 2014 ) online, bibliography pp 242 -- 76. Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 : 1877 - 1896 ( 1919 ) online complete ; pp 188 -- 96 Primary sources Chinese Immigration Pamphlets in the California State Library. Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 3 Vol. 4, `` Bitter Melon : Inside America 's Last Rural Chinese Town '' How residents of Locke, California, the last rural Chinese town in America, lived in the Sacramento Delta under the Chinese Exclusion Act External links Wikisource has several original texts related to : Chinese Exclusion Act Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chinese Exclusion Act. George Frederick Seward and the Chinese Exclusion Act `` From the Stacks '' at New - York Historical Society George Frederick Seward Papers, MS 557, The New - York Historical Society Text of 1880 Chinese Exclusion Treaty and 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act -- PBS.org Chinese Exclusion Act from the Library of Congress Chinese Exclusion Act -- Menlo School Chinese Exclusion Act ( 1882 ) -- Our Documents Exclusion Act Case Files of Yee Wee Thing and Yee Bing Quai, two `` Paper Sons '' The Yung Wing Project hosts the memoir of one of the earliest naturalized Chinese whose citizenship was revoked forty - six years after having received it as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act. An Alleged Wife One Immigrant in the Chinese Exclusion Era Collection of primary source documents relating to the Chinese Exclusion Act, from Harvard University. Primary source documents and images from the University of California The Rocky Road to Liberty : A Documented History of Chinese American Immigration and Exclusion ( 1 ) Primary source documents and images related to the documentary `` Separate Lives, Broken Dreams '' saga of the Chinese Exclusion Act era, e.g. political cartoons, immigrant case files and government correspondence from the National Archives. Chinese American topics Related groups Chinese Americans American - born Chinese Hong Kong Americans Asian American Hyphenated American Hakka Americans Hokkien and Hoklo Americans Fuzhou Americans History Chinese American history U.S. immigration policy toward the People 's Republic of China One Hundred Years : History of the Chinese in America by location California Los Angeles San Francisco Hawaii Illinois ( Chicago ) Massachusetts ( Boston ) Michigan ( Detroit ) Missouri ( St. Louis ) New York ( New York City ) Puerto Rico Texas Dallas - Fort Worth Houston Washington ( Seattle ) Anti-Chinese discrimination Legislation Anti-Chinese legislation Anti-Coolie Act Chinese Exclusion Act Geary Act Immigration Act of 1924 Cable Act Magnuson Act Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 Events Chinese massacre of 1871 Tape v. Hurley ( 1884 ) Issaquah riot of 1885 Rock Springs massacre ( 1885 ) Tacoma riot of 1885 ( 1885 ) Seattle riot of 1886 Yick Wo v. Hopkins ( 1886 ) Hells Canyon Massacre ( 1887 ) United States v. Wong Kim Ark ( 1898 ) Murder of Vincent Chin ( 1982 ) Shooting of Akai Gurley ( 2016 ) Chinatowns Chinatowns in the Americas Chinatowns in the United States Chinatowns in Canada Chinatowns in Latin America Baltimore Boston Chicago Cleveland Denver Detroit Honolulu Houston Locke, California Los Angeles Monterey Park, California Montville, Connecticut Newark, New Jersey New Orleans New York City Manhattan Brooklyn Queens Oakland Oklahoma City Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland, Oregon Providence, Rhode Island Richardson, Texas Salem, Oregon St. Louis Salt Lake City San Diego San Francisco Richmond District Sunset District San Gabriel Valley San Jose, California Seattle Spokane, Washington Stockton, California Tacoma, Washington Washington, D.C. Culture Food American Chinese cuisine Film American Chinese films Terminology Chinaman 's chance Jook - sing Events Love boat Education Chinese school Confucius Institute Transportation Chinatown bus lines Museums Museum of Chinese in America Chinese American Museum Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum Wo Hing Museum Organizations List of Chinese American associations Chinese American Citizens Alliance Chinese church Chinese Community Centre Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association Chinese Historical Society of Southern California Chinese Society Halls on Maui Ying On Association Chinese Staff and Workers ' Association Chinese for Affirmative Action Committee of 100 Organization of Chinese Americans Bing Kong Tong Hip Sing Association Banks Cathay Bank United International Bank Global Commerce Bank East West Bank Others Lists List of Chinese Americans List of U.S. cities with significant Chinese - American populations Immigration to the United States and related topics Relevant colonial era, United States and international laws Colonial era Nationality law in the American Colonies Plantation Act 1740 18th century Naturalization Act 1790 / 1795 / 1798 19th century Naturalization Law 1802 Civil Rights Act of 1866 14th Amendment ( 1868 ) Naturalization Act 1870 Page Act ( 1875 ) Immigration Act of 1882 Chinese Exclusion ( 1882 ) Scott Act ( 1888 ) Immigration Act of 1891 Geary Act ( 1892 ) 1900 -- 1949 Naturalization Act 1906 Gentlemen 's Agreement ( 1907 ) Immigration Act of 1907 Immigration Act 1917 ( Asian Barred Zone ) Emergency Quota Act ( 1921 ) Cable Act ( 1922 ) Immigration Act 1924 Tydings -- McDuffie Act ( 1934 ) Filipino Repatriation Act ( 1935 ) Nationality Act of 1940 Bracero Program ( 1942 -- 1964 ) Magnuson Act ( 1943 ) War Brides Act ( 1945 ) Luce -- Celler Act ( 1946 ) 1950 -- 1999 UN Refugee Convention ( 1951 ) Immigration and Nationality Act 1952 / 1965 Refugee Act ( 1980 ) Immigration Reform and Control Act ( 1986 ) American Homecoming Act ( 1989 ) Immigration Act 1990 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act ( IIRIRA ) ( 1996 ) Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act ( NACARA ) ( 1997 ) American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act ( ACWIA ) ( 1998 ) 21st century American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act ( AC21 ) ( 2000 ) Legal Immigration Family Equity Act ( LIFE Act ) ( 2000 ) H - 1B Visa Reform Act ( 2004 ) REAL ID Act ( 2005 ) Secure Fence Act ( 2006 ) DACA ( 2012 ) Executive Order 13769 ( 2017 ) Executive Order 13780 ( 2017 ) Visas and policies Visa policy Permanent residence Visa Waiver Program Temporary protected status Asylum Green Card Lottery US - VISIT Security Advisory Opinion E-Verify Section 287 ( g ) National Origins Formula Government organizations Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement U.S. Border Patrol U.S. Customs and Border Protection Immigration and Naturalization Service ( INS ) Board of Immigration Appeals Supreme Court cases United States v. Wong Kim Ark ( 1898 ) United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind ( 1923 ) United States v. Brignoni - Ponce ( 1975 ) Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting ( 2011 ) Related issues and events Economic impact Eugenics in the United States Guest worker program Human trafficking Human smuggling Coyotaje Immigration reform Immigration reduction Mexico -- United States barrier Labor shortage March for America Illegal immigrant population Reverse immigration 2006 protests Unaccompanied minors from Central America List of people deported from the United States Geography Mexico -- United States border Canada -- United States border United States Border Patrol interior checkpoints Proposed legislation DREAM Act ( 2001 -- 2010 ) H.R. 4437 ( 2005 ) McCain -- Kennedy ( 2005 ) SKIL ( 2006 ) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act 2006 STRIVE Act ( 2007 ) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act 2007 Uniting American Families Act ( 2000 -- 2013 ) Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 SAFE Act ( 2015 ) RAISE Act ( 2017 ) Immigration stations and points of entry Angel Island Castle Garden East Boston Ellis Island Sullivan 's Island Washington Avenue Operations `` Wetback '' ( 1954 ) `` Peter Pan '' ( 1960 -- 1962 ) `` Babylift '' ( 1975 ) `` Gatekeeper '' ( 1994 ) `` Endgame '' ( 2003 -- 2012 ) `` Front Line '' ( 2004 -- 2005 ) `` Streamline '' ( 2005 -- present ) `` Return to Sender '' ( 2006 -- 2007 ) `` Jump Start '' ( 2006 -- 2008 ) State legislation California DREAM Act ( 2006 -- 2010 ) Arizona SB 1070 ( 2010 ) Alabama HB 56 ( 2011 ) Non-governmental organizations Arizona Border Recon Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform National Immigration Forum Center for Community Change We Are America Alliance CASA of Maryland Mexica Movement Mexicans Without Borders Federation for American Immigration Reform Minuteman Project Minuteman Civil Defense Corps California Coalition for Immigration Reform Save Our State Center for Immigration Studies National Korean American Service & Education Consortium ( NAKASEC ) NumbersUSA Negative Population Growth Migration Policy Institute Utah Compact Center for Migration Studies of New York Discrimination General forms Age Caste Class Color Disability Gender Genotype Hair Height Language Looks Mental condition Race / Ethnicity / Nationality Rank Religion Sex Sexuality Size Species Social AIDS stigma Adultism Anti-albinism Anti-autism Anti-homelessness Anti-intellectualism Anti-intersex Anti-left handedness Anti-Masonry Antisemitism Audism Binarism Biphobia Elitism Ephebiphobia Fatism Genderism Gerontophobia Heteronormativity Heterosexism Homophobia Islamophobia Leprosy stigma Lesbophobia Mentalism Misandry Misogyny Nepotism Pedophobia Pregnancy Reverse Sectarianism Shadism Supremacism Arab Black White Transmisogyny Transphobia Vegaphobia Xenophobia Manifestations Animal cruelty Animal testing Blood libel Blood sport Carnism Compulsory sterilization Counter-jihad Cultural genocide Democide Disability hate crime Educational Economic Eliminationism Employment Enemy of the people Ethnic cleansing Ethnic hatred Ethnic joke Ethnocide Forced conversion Freak show Gay bashing Gendercide Genital mutilation Genocide examples Glass ceiling Group libel Hate crime Hate group Hate speech Homeless dumping Housing Indian rolling LGBT hate crime Lavender scare Lynching Meat eating Mortgage Murder music Occupational segregation Persecution Pogrom Purge Race war Red Scare Religious persecution Scapegoating Segregation academy Sex - selective abortion Slavery Slut - shaming Trans bashing Victimisation Violence against women White flight White power music Wife selling Witch - hunt Discriminatory policies Segregation age racial religious sex Age of candidacy Blood quantum Cleanliness of blood Crime of apartheid Disabilities Jewish Catholic Ethnocracy Gender pay gap Gender roles Gerontocracy Gerrymandering Ghetto benches Internment Jewish quota Jim Crow laws Law for Protection of the Nation McCarthyism MSM blood donor controversy Nonpersons Numerus clausus ( as religious or racial quota ) Nuremberg Laws One - drop rule Racial quota Racial steering Redlining Same - sex marriage ( laws and issues prohibiting ) Sodomy law Ugly law Voter suppression Countermeasures Affirmative action Ahimsa Animal rights Anti-discrimination law Cultural assimilation Cultural pluralism Desegregation Diversity training Empowerment Ethnopluralism Feminism Fighting Discrimination Human rights Intersex rights Multiculturalism Nonviolence Racial integration Self - determination Social integration Toleration Vegetarianism Veganism Related topics Allophilia Anti-cultural sentiment Anthropocentrism Assimilation Bias Christian privilege Data discrimination Dehumanization Diversity Ethnic penalty Eugenics Intersectionality Male privilege Masculism Multiculturalism Neurodiversity Oppression Police brutality Political correctness Power distance Prejudice Racial bias in criminal news Racism by country Regressive left Religious intolerance Second - generation gender bias Snobbery Social exclusion Social stigma Stereotype threat White privilege Portal Jump up ^ Risse, Guenter B. ( 2012 ). Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco 's Chinatown. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chinese_Exclusion_Act&oldid=814764356 '' Categories : 1882 in international relations 1882 in law 1882 in the United States Anti-Chinese legislation Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States Anti-immigration politics in the United States Asian - American issues Chinese - American history History of immigration to the United States History of racial segregation in the United States Race legislation in the United States United States federal immigration and nationality legislation United States immigration and naturalization case law United States repealed legislation White supremacy in the United States Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from May 2017 All articles needing additional references Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource Català Dansk Deutsch فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia עברית Nederlands 日本 語 Русский Svenska 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 10 December 2017, at 20 : 15. 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Question: the chinese exclusion act of 1882 was significant in american immigration history because
Answer: the first law implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to the United States