USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur . This act provided an absolute 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States.

Detailed explanation-2: -This act was the first significant restriction on free immigration in U.S. history, and it excluded Chinese laborers from the country under penalty of imprisonment and deportation. It also made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship.

Detailed explanation-3: -On the other hand, most people and unions strongly supported the Chinese Exclusion Act, including the American Federation of Labor and Knights of Labor, a labor union, who supported it because it believed that industrialists were using Chinese workers as a wedge to keep wages low.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Chinese Exclusion Act (PDF, 428KB) of 1882 was signed into law on May 6, 1882. Officially titled “An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese, ” the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years.

Detailed explanation-5: -Many Americans on the West Coast attributed declining wages and economic ills to Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only 0.002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to placate worker demands and assuage concerns about maintaining white “racial purity."