Chinese Exclusion Act

May 6, 1882

Congress, responding to West Coast nativism, suspended Chinese labor immigration for ten years and barred Chinese already in the country from becoming citizens. It was the first American immigration law aimed at a specific nationality. The ban would be extended and tightened and not fully repealed until 1943. The act established the precedent that the federal government could exclude immigrants by race, a principle that shaped policy for decades.