Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 U.S. Gov’t passed the only immigration law ever that targeted one specific nationality Why the Chinese? Race Culture Competition Nativism protecting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants

Chinese Exclusion Act So what did it say? Suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers into U.S. for 10 years Chinese who had been in U.S. before November 17, 1880 could stay, travel abroad, and return Prohibited naturalization of Chinese Any non-laborer Chinese immigrant (teachers, students & travelers for example) had to get a certificate from the Chinese gov’t stating that they were non-laborers It became extremely difficult for any Chinese immigrants to come over to the U.S.

10 Years Is Up 1892 hits… what do you think happened? Good Ole’ extension Geary Act  tacked on another 10 years of restricted immigration Also, required Chinese residents of the U.S. to get certificates stating that they were in fact residents Failure to do so = deportation Denied bail in habeas corpus cases (head before a judge/court)

Exclusion Act Repealed 1943 Exclusion Act/Geary Act repealed & replaced by a yearly immigrant quota For Chinese it was 105 (this # was calculated as a % of the total pop. of Chinese people living in U.S.) Also, Chinese immigrants could become naturalized 1965 New immigration act that would put the yearly quota to 170,000 w/ no more than 20,000 from each country

Immigration Today Annual legal immigrant cap is b/w 700,000-900,000 (depending on refugees) Still about 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants in the U.S. INS  USCIS  DHS Immigration & Naturalization Service became U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, which is now under the Department of Homeland Security http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/articles_immigration.html