Congress Bars Chinese Workers: First Racial Immigration Ban
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 6, 1882, barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States for ten years and making Chinese residents ineligible for citizenship. The law was the first American immigration restriction based on race or nationality. It was driven by anti-Chinese sentiment on the West Coast, where 300,000 Chinese immigrants had arrived since the Gold Rush and built much of the Transcontinental Railroad. White workers blamed them for depressed wages. The Act was renewed in 1892, made permanent in 1902, and not repealed until the Magnuson Act of 1943, when China was a wartime ally. Even then, Chinese immigration was limited to 105 people per year. The Chinese Exclusion Act established the legal architecture for all subsequent race-based immigration restrictions.
May 6, 1882
144 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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