•HRES 282 IH 
Whereas United States industrialists recruited thousands of 
Chinese workers to assist in the construction of the Na-
tion’s first major national transportation infrastructure, 
the Transcontinental Railroad; 
Whereas Chinese laborers, who made up the majority of the 
western portion of the railroad workforce, faced grueling 
hours and extremely harsh conditions in order to lay hun-
dreds of miles of track and were paid substandard wages; 
Whereas without the tremendous efforts and technical con-
tributions of these Chinese immigrants, the completion of 
this vital national infrastructure would have been seri-
ously impeded; 
Whereas from the middle of the 19th century through the 
early 20th century, Chinese immigrants faced racial os-
tracism and violent assaults, including the 1887 Snake 
River Massacre in Oregon, at which 31 Chinese miners 
were killed, and numerous other incidents, including at-
tacks on Chinese immigrants in Rock Springs, San Fran-
cisco, Tacoma, and Los Angeles; 
Whereas the United States instigated the negotiation of the 
Burlingame Treaty, ratified on October 19, 1868, which 
permitted the free movement of the Chinese people to, 
from, and within the United States and accorded to 
China the status of ‘‘most favored nation’’; 
Whereas Chinese immigrants were subject to the over-zealous 
implementation of the Page Act of 1875 (18 Stat. 477), 
which ostensibly barred the importation of women from 
‘‘China, Japan or any Oriental country’’ for purposes of 
prostitution but was disproportionately enforced against 
Chinese women, effectively preventing the formation of 
Chinese families in the United States; 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
Whereas, in 1878, notwithstanding the freedom of movement 
promised to Chinese immigrants by the Burlingame 
Treaty, the House of Representatives passed a resolution 
requesting that President Rutherford B. Hayes renego-
tiate the Treaty so that legislation could be passed lim-
iting Chinese immigration to the United States; 
Whereas, on February 22, 1879, notwithstanding the fact 
that the Burlingame Treaty had not been renegotiated, 
the House passed the Fifteen Passenger Bill, which 
would have limited the number of Chinese passengers 
permitted on any ship coming to the United States to 15, 
with the House Committee Report stressing the Chinese 
people’s ‘‘sordid, selfish, immoral and non-amalgamating 
habits’’; 
Whereas, on March 1, 1879, President Hayes vetoed the Fif-
teen Passenger Bill as being incompatible with the Bur-
lingame Treaty, which declared that ‘‘Chinese subjects 
visiting or residing in the United States, shall enjoy the 
same privileges . . . in respect to travel or residence, as 
may there be enjoyed by the citizens and subjects of the 
most favored nation’’; 
Whereas in the aftermath of the veto of the Fifteen Pas-
senger Bill, President Hayes initiated the renegotiation of 
the Burlingame Treaty, requesting that the Chinese gov-
ernment consent to restrictions on the immigration of 
Chinese persons to the United States; 
Whereas these negotiations culminated in the Angell Treaty, 
ratified by the United States on May 9, 1881, which al-
lowed the United States to suspend, but not to prohibit, 
the immigration of Chinese laborers, declared that ‘‘Chi-
nese laborers who are now in the United States shall be 
allowed to go and come of their own free will,’’ and re-
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
affirmed that Chinese persons possessed ‘‘all the rights, 
privileges, immunities, and exemptions which are ac-
corded to the citizens and subjects of the most favored 
nation’’; 
Whereas, on March 23, 1882, the House passed the first Chi-
nese Exclusion Act, which purported to implement the 
Angell Treaty but instead excluded for 20 years both 
skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers, rejected an amend-
ment that would have permitted the naturalization of 
Chinese persons, and instead expressly denied Chinese 
persons the right to be naturalized as American citizens; 
Whereas, on April 4, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur ve-
toed the first Chinese Exclusion Act as being incompat-
ible with the terms and spirit of the Angell Treaty; 
Whereas, on April 17, 1882, under suspension of the rules, 
the House passed the second Chinese Exclusion Act 
which prohibited skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers 
from entering the United States for 10 years, was the 
first Federal law that excluded a single group of people 
on the basis of race, and required certain Chinese labor-
ers already legally present in the United States who later 
wished to reenter the United States to obtain ‘‘certifi-
cates of return’’, an unprecedented requirement that ap-
plied only to Chinese residents; 
Whereas in response to reports that courts were bestowing 
United States citizenship on persons of Chinese descent, 
the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 explicitly prohibited 
all State and Federal courts from naturalizing Chinese 
persons; 
Whereas the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 underscored the 
belief of Congress at that time that the Chinese people 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
were unfit to be naturalized and, as expressed in the 
House Committee Report accompanying that Act, that 
the Chinese came to the United States ‘‘without the in-
tention to make it their permanent residence’’ and ‘‘that 
they retain their distinctive peculiarities and characteris-
tics, refusing to assimilate themselves to our institutions, 
and remaining a separate and distinct class, intrenched 
[sic] behind immovable prejudices; that their ignorance or 
disregard of sanitary laws, as evidenced in their habits of 
life, breeds disease, pestilence, and death; that their claim 
of superiority as to religion and civilization, destroys all 
hope of their improvement from contact with our institu-
tions’’; 
Whereas, on May 3, 1884, notwithstanding United States 
treaty obligations with China and other nations, the 
House by a vote of 184–13 broadened the scope of the 
Chinese Exclusion Act to apply it to all persons of Chi-
nese descent, ‘‘whether subjects of China or any other 
foreign power’’, and to provide more stringent require-
ments restricting Chinese immigration; 
Whereas, on September 3, 1888, the House by voice vote 
passed the Scott Act, which prohibited all Chinese labor-
ers who would choose or had chosen to leave the United 
States from reentering, cancelled all previously issued 
‘‘certificates of return’’ preventing approximately 20,000 
Chinese laborers abroad, including 600 individuals who 
were en route to the United States, from returning to 
their families or their homes, and was later determined 
by the Supreme Court to have abrogated the Angell 
Treaty; 
Whereas, on April 4, 1892, under suspension of the rules, the 
House passed the Geary Act, which extended the Chinese 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
Exclusion Act another 10 years, required that all Chinese 
persons in the United States, but no other race of people, 
register with the Federal Government in order to obtain 
‘‘certificates of residence’’, and denied Chinese immi-
grants the right to be released on bail upon application 
for a writ of habeas corpus; 
Whereas, on an explicitly racial basis, the Geary Act deemed 
the testimony of Chinese persons, including American 
citizens of Chinese descent, per se insufficient to estab-
lish the residency of a Chinese person subject to deporta-
tion, mandating that such residence be established 
through the testimony of ‘‘at least one credible white wit-
ness’’; 
Whereas in the 1894 Gresham-Yang Treaty, the Chinese gov-
ernment consented to a prohibition of Chinese immigra-
tion and the enforcement of the Geary Act in exchange 
for readmission of previous Chinese residents; 
Whereas, in 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii, took 
control of the Philippines, and excluded thousands of ra-
cially Chinese residents of Hawaii and the Philippines 
from entering the United States mainland; 
Whereas, on April 29, 1902, Congress indefinitely extended 
all laws regulating and restricting Chinese immigration 
and residence, and expressly applied such laws to United 
States insular territories, including the Philippines; 
Whereas, in 1904, after the Chinese government exercised its 
unilateral right to withdraw from the Gresham-Yang 
Treaty, Congress permanently extended, ‘‘without modi-
fication, limitation, or condition’’, all restrictions on Chi-
nese immigration and naturalization, making the Chinese 
the only racial group explicitly singled out for immigra-
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
tion exclusion and permanently ineligible for American 
citizenship; 
Whereas, between 1910 and 1940, the Angel Island Immigra-
tion Station implemented the Chinese exclusion laws by 
confining Chinese persons for up to nearly two years, in-
terrogating Chinese persons, and providing a model for 
similar immigration stations at other locations on the Pa-
cific coast and in Hawaii; 
Whereas each of the congressional debates concerning issues 
of Chinese civil rights, naturalization, and immigration 
involved intensely racial rhetoric, with many Members of 
Congress claiming that all persons of Chinese descent 
were unworthy of American citizenship, incapable of as-
similation into American society, and dangerous to the 
political and social integrity of the United States; 
Whereas the express discrimination in these Federal statutes 
politically and racially stigmatized Chinese immigration 
into the United States, enshrining in law the exclusion of 
the Chinese from the political process and the promise of 
American freedom; 
Whereas wartime enemy forces used the anti-Chinese legisla-
tion passed in Congress as evidence of American racism 
against the Chinese, attempting to undermine the Chi-
nese-American alliance and allied military efforts; 
Whereas, in 1943, at the urging of President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt, and over 60 years after the enactment of the 
first discriminatory laws aimed at Chinese immigrants, 
Congress repealed previously enacted anti-Chinese legisla-
tion and permitted Chinese immigrants to become United 
States citizens; 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
Whereas despite facing decades of systematic, pervasive, and 
sustained discrimination, Chinese immigrants and Chi-
nese-Americans persevered and have continued to play a 
significant role in the growth and success of the United 
States; 
Whereas six decades of Federal legislation deliberately tar-
geting Chinese persons by race affected the capacity of 
generations of individuals and families to pursue life in 
America openly and without fear, and fostered an atmos-
phere of racial discrimination that deeply prejudiced their 
civil rights; 
Whereas diversity is one of our Nation’s greatest strengths, 
and, while this Nation was founded on the principle that 
all persons are created equal, the laws enacted by Con-
gress in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that re-
stricted the political and civil rights of persons of Chinese 
descent violated that principle; 
Whereas although an acknowledgement of the actions of the 
House of Representatives that contributed to discrimina-
tion against persons of Chinese descent will not erase the 
past, such an expression will acknowledge and illuminate 
the injustices in our national experience, and help to 
build a better and stronger Nation; 
Whereas the House of Representatives recognizes the impor-
tance of addressing this unique framework of discrimina-
tory laws in order to educate the public and future gen-
erations regarding the impact of these laws on Chinese 
and other Asian persons and their implications to all 
Americans; and 
Whereas the House of Representatives deeply regrets the en-
actment of the Chinese Exclusion Act and related dis-
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
criminatory laws that resulted in the persecution and po-
litical alienation of persons of Chinese descent, unfairly 
limited their civil rights, legitimized racial discrimination, 
and induced trauma within that community: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) acknowledges that this framework of anti- 
Chinese legislation, including the Chinese Exclusion 
Act, is incompatible with the basic founding prin-
ciples recognized in the Declaration of Independence 
that all persons are created equal; 
(2) acknowledges that this pattern of anti-Chi-
nese legislation, including the Chinese Exclusion 
Act, is incompatible with the spirit of the United 
States Constitution; 
(3) deeply regrets passing six decades of legisla-
tion directly targeting the Chinese people for phys-
ical and political exclusion and the wrongs com-
mitted against Chinese and American citizens of 
Chinese descent who suffered under these discrimi-
natory laws; and 
(4) reaffirms its commitment to preserving the 
same civil rights and constitutional protections for 
people of Chinese or other Asian descent in the 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS
•HRES 282 IH 
United States accorded to all others, regardless of 
their race or ethnicity. 
Æ 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
03:22 May 27, 2011
Jkt 099200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\HR282.IH
HR282
jbell on DSKDVH8Z91PROD with BILLS