Congress Bars Chinese Workers: First Racial Immigration Ban

Congress did not pretend the law was about anything other than race. The Chinese Exclusion Act, signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, banned Chinese laborers from entering the United States for ten years, made Chinese residents permanently ineligible for citizenship, and established the first immigration restriction in American history based explicitly on national origin and ethnicity. Chinese immigration to the United States had surged during the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. By 1880, roughly 105,000 Chinese immigrants lived in the western states, representing less than 0.2 percent of the total population. They worked in mining, railroad construction, agriculture, and laundry services, filling labor needs that white workers avoided. Anti-Chinese violence had been escalating for years. The 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles killed at least 17 people. Rock Springs, Wyoming, and other western towns experienced mob attacks on Chinese communities. The nativist movement portrayed Chinese workers as an economic threat who depressed wages through their willingness to accept lower pay, and a cultural threat whose customs and religions were incompatible with American society. California's congressional delegation led the legislative push. Senator John F. Miller argued on the Senate floor that Chinese immigrants were "machine-like" workers incapable of assimilation. President Arthur vetoed an initial version that imposed a twenty-year ban, considering it a violation of the Burlingame Treaty with China. The revised ten-year version passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. The act was renewed in 1892 by the Geary Act, which added the requirement that Chinese residents carry identification certificates at all times. Subsequent legislation made the exclusion permanent in 1902. The law was not repealed until 1943, when China's status as a World War II ally made the racial ban diplomatically untenable, though immigration was limited to a token quota of 105 persons per year. The Chinese Exclusion Act established the legal and bureaucratic framework for all subsequent American immigration restriction.