President Biden recently commemorated the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a U.S. legislation enacted in 1882 which had placed a 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, the first major law restricting immigration into the U.S., which was eventually repealed in 1943 with the Magnuson Act, “weaponized our immigration system to discriminate against an entire ethnic group,” according to the White House’s official statement.
“For generations, people of Chinese heritage have enriched our country — from Chinese laborers who did backbreaking work to build the transcontinental railroad in the 1800s to the Chinese Americans who serve in our military, to the authors, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and scholars of today,” the statement said. “We honor them, and all immigrants, who continue to make extraordinary contributions to our nation.”
The White House statement comes after Asian American lawmakers introduced resolutions in the House and Senate to mark the repeal’s 80th anniversary.
The Chinese Exclusion Act emerged in response to the large numbers of Chinese immigrants in the mid-1800s. White laborers turned on these immigrants by the end of the century, viewing them as a threat to their work opportunities.
The Act was originally set to expire after a decade but was extended via the Geary Act. Even once the Act was officially repealed 61 years after its establishment, numbers of Chinese migrants in the U.S. were still limited, with quotas and other measures in place that were intended to restrict Chinese immigration. One such measure was the Immigration Act of 1924, which made those ineligible for U.S. citizenship unable to enter the country. And while Asian exclusion formally ended with the 1952 Immigration Act, racial quotas remained in place for over a decade, until the Immigration Act of 1965.
“On this anniversary, we remember those whose lives, families, and communities were irreparably harmed,” Biden said in his statement.
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Chinese migrants seeking a home in the United States should consider consulting a California immigration attorney. Illegal border crossings can have a detrimental impact on one’s ability to apply for visas, asylum, permanent residency, citizenship, and other statuses.
Reeves Immigration Law Group works with immigrants from around the world, including China, to determine the best options given U.S. legislation surrounding their native countries. Our team of experienced attorneys is highly skilled and up to date with the latest regulations, allowing us to provide results-oriented guidance.
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