IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 936 
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion 
Act of 1882. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 14, 2023 
Ms. CHU (for herself, Ms. MENG, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. TOKUDA, 
Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. 
DELBENE, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. THANEDAR, Mr. 
GOMEZ, Mr. CASE, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Ms. 
LEE of California, Mr. GOLDMAN of New York, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, 
Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Mr. LIEU, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. CONNOLLY, 
and Mr. BERA) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on the Judiciary 
RESOLUTION 
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the 
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. 
Whereas many Chinese people came to the United States in 
the 19th and 20th centuries, as did people from other 
countries, in search of the opportunity to create a better 
life; 
Whereas the contributions of Chinese Americans in agri-
culture, mining, manufacturing, transportation, canning, 
and other industries were critical to shaping the history 
of the United States and strengthening the United States 
in the present; 
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•HRES 936 IH 
Whereas Chinese people faced racial ostracism and violent as-
saults in the United States from the middle of the 19th 
century through the early 20th century, and Chinese peo-
ple continue to experience anti-Asian hate in the present; 
Whereas, on October 19, 1868, the United States ratified the 
Burlingame Treaty, which permitted the free movement 
of Chinese people to, from, and within the United States, 
and made China a ‘‘most favored nation’’; 
Whereas, in 1878, Congress introduced a joint resolution re-
questing that President Rutherford B. Hayes renegotiate 
the Burlingame Treaty so Congress could limit Chinese 
immigration to the United States; 
Whereas, on February 22, 1879, Congress passed the ‘‘Fif-
teen Passenger Bill’’, which would have only permitted 
15 Chinese passengers on board any ship traveling to the 
United States; 
Whereas, on March 1, 1879, President Hayes vetoed the 
‘‘Fifteen Passenger Bill’’ as being incompatible with the 
Burlingame Treaty; 
Whereas, on May 9, 1881, the United States ratified the 
Angell Treaty, which— 
(1) allowed the United States to suspend, but not to 
prohibit, the immigration of Chinese laborers; 
(2) declared that ‘‘Chinese laborers who are now in 
the United States shall be allowed to go and come of 
their own free will’’; and 
(3) reaffirmed that Chinese persons possessed ‘‘all 
the rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions which 
are accorded to the citizens and subjects of the most fa-
vored nation’’; 
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•HRES 936 IH 
Whereas Congress passed legislation that adversely affected 
and limited the civil rights of Chinese people in the 
United States, including— 
(1) on March 23, 1882, the first Chinese Exclusion 
Act, which would have excluded skilled and unskilled Chi-
nese laborers for 20 years and expressly denied Chinese 
people the right to be naturalized as citizens of the 
United States, and which was vetoed by President Ches-
ter A. Arthur on April 4, 1882, as incompatible with the 
terms and the spirit of the Angell Treaty; 
(2) on May 3, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 
1882 (22 Stat. 58, chapter 126), which— 
(A) prohibited Chinese workers from entering 
the United States for 10 years instead of 20; 
(B) required certain Chinese laborers already 
legally present at that time in the United States who 
later wished to reenter the United States to obtain 
‘‘certificates for return’’; 
(C) prohibited courts from naturalizing Chinese 
individuals; 
(D) was signed into law by President Arthur on 
May 6, 1882; and 
(E) was the first Federal law that excluded a 
single group of people in the United States on the 
basis of race; 
(3) on July 3, 1884, an expansion of the Chinese 
Exclusion Act of 1882 (23 Stat. 115, chapter 220), 
which— 
(A) applied the Act to all people of Chinese de-
scent, ‘‘whether subjects of China or any other for-
eign power’’; and 
(B) was signed into law by President Arthur on 
July 5, 1884; 
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•HRES 936 IH 
(4) on September 13, 1888, the Scott Act (25 Stat. 
504, chapter 1064), which— 
(A) prohibited legal Chinese laborers from reen-
tering the United States, and cancelled all previously 
issued ‘‘certificates for return’’; 
(B) was signed into law by President Grover 
Cleveland on October 1, 1888; and 
(C) was determined by the Supreme Court of 
the United States in Chae Chan Ping v. United 
States, 130 U.S. 581 (1889), to have abrogated the 
Angell Treaty; and 
(5) on May 4, 1892, the Geary Act (27 Stat. 25, 
chapter 60), which— 
(A) reauthorized the Chinese Exclusion Act of 
1882 for another 10 years; 
(B) denied Chinese immigrants the right to be 
released on bail on application for a writ of habeas 
corpus; 
(C) authorized the deportation of Chinese peo-
ple who could not produce a certificate of residence 
unless they could establish residence through the 
testimony of ‘‘at least one credible White witness’’, 
contrary to customary legal standards regarding the 
presumption of innocence; and 
(D) was signed into law by President Benjamin 
Harrison on May 5, 1892; 
Whereas, in 1894, the United States and China agreed to the 
Gresham-Yang Treaty, within which the Chinese Govern-
ment consented to a prohibition of Chinese immigration 
and the enforcement of the Geary Act in exchange for re-
admission to the United States of Chinese people who 
were residents of the United States; 
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