Exclusion Acts
The Chinese Exclusion laws enacted from 1882 to their overall repeal in 1943, plus other relevant immigration legislation, created a body of federal records specific to documenting Chinese in America. Chinese exclusion case files can be found in NARA branches around the U.S., but most particularly in San Bruno, California, where records covering those entering at the port of San Francisco are held. Investigating local and state legislation for references to Chinese residents may yield record sources specific to Chinese in these jurisdictions. Below is an overview of significant legislation affecting Chinese in America from the late eighteenth to the mid twentieth centuries.
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"Paper Sons": Chinese American illegal immigrants
Published on Nov 14, 2009 CNN anchor Richard Lui reports on "Paper Sons and Daughters," a group of Chinese immigrants that bought fake papers and claimed to be the children of legal U.S. citizens in order to skirt the Chinese Exclusion Act. His report looks into studies that show one third of today's current Chinese American population are descendants or are actual "paper sons or daughters" today. |
1868 Burlingame-Seward Treaty
1875 Page Act
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
1888 Scott Act
1892 Geary Act
1902 McCreary Act (Extension of Geary Act)
1924 Johnson-Reed/National Origins/Asian Exclusion Act
1943 Magnuson/Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act
1945 War Brides Act
1946 Public Law 713
1947 G.I. Fiancées Act
1952 McCarran-Walter/Immigration and Nationality Act
1959 Chinese Confession Program
1965 Hart-Cellar/Immigration and Nationality Act
1966 Confession Program Ends
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