20070506 On this date in history: The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed

On this date in history the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

May 6th, 2007

The photograph belongs to the “Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library.”[1]


According to the Library of Congress:

“The door to the Chinese American dream was finally slammed shut in 1882, when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act was the first significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history, and it excluded Chinese laborers from the country under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. It also made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship. Chinese men in the U.S. now had little chance of ever reuniting with their wives…”

Read the rest here: Library of Congress

Meanwhile, in Congress, the Washington Times is reporting May 5th, 2007 that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday set a firm deadline on President Bush's efforts to work out an immigration agreement, announcing he will bypass the normal process and have the Senate debate an old immigration bill unless the White House can produce an acceptable alternative by May 14…”

Read the rest of the article here: “Reid sets immigration bill debate” by Stephen Dinan, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, May 5, 2007

References:

18820506 Chinese Exclusion Act

18801117 Treaty Regulating Immigration from China

For more about exclusion in California, visit The Chinese in California, 1850-1925: Exclusion.

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[1] This photograph is owned by the Denver Public Library. The Credit Line reads: “Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library.” For more information and photographs please see: “History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library.” The low-resolution reproduction is hopefully covered under the fair use clause of the 1976 copyright act to illustrate the subject of this post and for use for educational, scholarly purposes and private study.