Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

In 1882 the US took drastic measures in preventing people from entering the country by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law prevented the Chinese people from immigrating to the US for a period of ten years. This act was passed because "in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof." Americans, and even other immigrants, felt that the rapid immigration of such large numbers of Chinese took away many jobs for people already in the US. The government's plan to ban the Chinese was very effective. For ten years no Chinese were allowed to immigrate or even come to America. To make sure this rule held up, the government would even punish any American boat captain who helped the Chinese sneak into this country. The offender could "be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars for each and every such Chinese laborer so brought, and may be also imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year." This is a pretty heavy fine to have to pay just for trying to help someone else out so it made most people not want to risk any sort of punishment. The American government meant business when they said all Chinese were banned for this country. They had no problem punishing "any person who shall knowingly and falsely alter or substitute any name for the name written in such certificate or forge any such certificate, or knowingly utter any forged or fraudulent certificate, or falsely personate any person named in any such certificate." Anyone that tried to create a new American identity for the Chinese sneaking in to our country were punished the same way that any boat captain was in they were caught. The United States was so set on keeping all Chinese out and opening up jobs for Americans that no one from China was even allowed to visit for fear that they would stay in the country and start a life here illegally. The only exception to this rule was if a Chinese government official or diplomat visited the country on business. In that case they would have all their personal servants checked out and make sure that they left with the same number of people they came with. This was a very intense way to filter immigration but I would not be surprised if we see something like this with immigrants from Mexico today since many people feel the same way about those now as they did about the Chinese then.

"Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .