The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 and banned all immigration from China for 10 years. It was renewed for 10 more years in the 1892 Geary Act and in 1902 it was made permanent. The ban on Chinese immigration remained in place until 1943 when the Magnuson Act allowed 105 Chinese nationals to emigrate to the United States per year.

Below are several primary sources regarding the debate leading up to the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Chinese Exclusion Act itself.

Primary Sources

• Chinese Immigration, the Social, Moral and Political Effect of Chinese Immigration, Policy and Means of Exclusion. A report from the California State Senate written in 1877 which contains a number of arguments against Chinese immigration.
• A trio of short articles by socialist labor leaders prior to the act’s passage. Short essays by California labor leaders on the evils of Chinese immigration and how they acted with capitalists to impoverish white workingmen as well as arguments against this view.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. A page with a scanning of the original Exclusion Act document.

Secondary Sources

• An article on the debate surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act (and it’s later repeal)
• Data on crime/incarceration in California and the 19th century west
• Data on the impact of immigration on real wages in the US
• And information on California’s share of foreign born as a percentage of the population.

Open Borders Blog Post

• How Did We Get Here? The Origins of Border Restrictions: The Chinese Exclusion Act by Chris Hendrix.