Captives of Law: Judicial Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, 1891-1905

1989 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Salyer
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Exclusion Laws

Chinese Exclusion and the Open Door with China: Structural Contradictions and the 'Chaos' of Law, 1882-1910

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kitty Calavita
Keyword(s):  
Business Community ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
Congressional Record ◽  
The Us ◽  
Exclusion Laws ◽  
Do So

This article examines the structural contradictions underlying the difficulties of implementing the Chinese exclusion laws first enacted by the US Congress in 1882. I argue that these contradictions were grounded in the material and ideological conditions of the period, were reproduced in the unwieldy logic of the exclusion laws, and emerged as unresolvable enforcement dilemmas. Most important, the anti-Chinese racism on which the exclusion laws were based clashed with economic interests driven by the promise of lucrative trade with China. Using unpublished archival materials, the Congressional Record and Congressional reports, as well as annual reports of the enforcement bureaucracy, I show that exceptions to the exclusions for Chinese merchants were an attempt to reconcile this contradiction, and in turn generated formidable enforcement problems. Further, I argue that the impossibility of making sharp binary distinctions between merchants and 'coolies', and the humiliating procedures involved in the futile effort to do so, subjected the Immigration Bureau to criticism from exclusionists for their failure to detect fraud, and from the Chinese and their advocates in the business community for their harsh practices. The implications for sociolegal studies more generally are examined in the conclusion.

“A Pressing Problem of Interracial Justice”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeline Y. Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Organized Labor ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
American Education ◽  
Immigration Reform ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
International War ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Democratic Nation ◽  
Exclusion Laws

This chapter describes how international war compelled repeal of the Chinese exclusion laws, which were seen as unacceptable insults to a wartime ally. As the first liberalization of immigration law since 1924, the campaign for repeal showcased long-simmering contradictions between foreign policy agendas, nativist racism, ethnic and religious groups, organized labor, and economic priorities that would channel and distort the long struggle for immigration reform and eventual passage of the Hart–Celler Act of 1965. With her Christian upbringing, American education, and proximity to power in China, Madame Chiang Kai-shek served as a potent symbol of the humanity and assimilability of Chinese as well as the possibility that long-cherished missionary dreams for the transformation of China into a Christian, democratic nation might be realized.

Carson City and Truckee: Anti-Chinese Activities

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Fawn Chung
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Population ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Chinese Immigrants ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
The Media ◽  
Exclusion Laws

This chapter examines anti-Chinese activities in two towns: Carson City in Nevada and Truckee in California. Anti-Chinese movements emerged when it became clear to Euro-Americans that the Chinese posed threats to American jobs, economy, culture, and white supremacy. Between 1850 and 1908, a total of 153 violent anti-Chinese actions resulted in 143 deaths and the displacement of 10,525 from their homes and businesses. Anti-Chinese sentiment intensified in the 1870s in preparation for immigration restrictions that led to the enactment of federal Chinese exclusion laws between 1882 and 1892. This chapter discusses attempts to oust the Chinese immigrants from Carson and Truckee, both of which had prosperous Chinatowns with wealthy Chinese merchants who were involved in the lumber trade as contractors for laborers and merchandising. It also considers the role played by the media in anti-Chinese agitation and how the anti-Chinese hostility reduced the Chinese population in Carson and Truckee.

Federal Regulation of Aliens and the Constitution

1989 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 862-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Alexander Aleinikoff
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Federal Regulation ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Exclusion Laws ◽  
Constitutional Analysis ◽  
The U.S

In two cases decided in the afterglow of the centennial of the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court said nearly everything the modern lawyer needs to know about the source and extent of Congress’s power to regulate immigration. The cases sustained the constitutionality of the first significant congressional restrictions on immigration—the shameful Chinese exclusion laws. Constitutional analysis of the immigration power has yet to shed the original sins of the Court’s ratification of Congress’s ignominious legislation.

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