Both the Chinese Bureau within the Customs Service and the Chinese Division of the INS employed "Chinese" inspectors, people designated to enforce the Chinese exclusion laws. This office evolved into the present Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In 1900 the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration, which had been established in the Department of the Treasury in 1891, became the chief agency responsible for implementing Federal regulations mandated by the Chinese exclusion laws. Initially the Customs Service took the lead because of the maritime nature of immigration. 911) numerous laws continued to have a restrictive impact on Chinese immigration.Ĭertain Federal agencies were particularly active in enforcing the exclusion laws. However until the Immigration Act of October 1965 (79 Stat. This Act of December 13, 1943, also lifted restrictions on naturalization. Roosevelt signed an Act to Repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts, to Establish Quotas, and for Other Purposes (57 Stat. During World War II, when China and the United States were allies, President Franklin D. Other restrictive immigration acts affecting citizens of Chinese ancestry followed. Imprisonment or deportation were the penalties for those who failed to have the required papers or witnesses. This Act required Chinese to register and secure a certificate as proof of their right to be in the United States. Referred to as the Geary Act, it allowed Chinese laborers to travel to China and reenter the United States but its provisions were otherwise more restrictive than preceding immigration laws. The next significant exclusionary legislation was the Act to Prohibit the Coming of Chinese Persons into the United States of May 1892 (27 Stat. These exempt classes would be admitted upon presentation of a certificate from the Chinese government. Passed by the 47th Congress, this law suspended immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years permitted those Chinese in the United States as of November 17, 1880, to stay, travel abroad, and return prohibited the naturalization of Chinese and created the Section 6 exempt status for teachers, students, merchants, and travelers.
Competition with American workers and a growing nativism brought pressure for restrictive action, which began with the Act of (22 Stat. This Federal policy resulted from concern over the large numbers of Chinese who had come to the United States in response to the need for inexpensive labor, especially for construction of the transcontinental railroad. Chinese Immigration and the Chinese in the United States Introductionįrom 1882 to 1943 the United States Government severely curtailed immigration from China to the United States.