LibGuides: Anti-Asian/Asian American Racism: A Resource Guide: Policy and Laws

Regulated Legislation (Note: The original documents are also primary sources)

2021 Biden signed the 'COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, 364-62' into law. This bill requires a designated officer or employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to facilitate the expedited review of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) hate crimes and reports of COVID-19 hate crimes. It defines COVID-19 hate crime as a violent crime that is motivated by two things: (1) the actual or perceived characteristic (e.g., race or ethnicity) of any person, and (2) the actual or perceived relationship to the spread of COVID-19 of any person because of that characteristic. The bill requires DOJ to issue guidance for state and local law enforcement agencies on how to establish online hate crime reporting processes in multiple languages and how to expand culturally competent education campaigns. Additionally, DOJ and the Department of Health and Human Services must issue guidance on best practices for mitigating racially discriminatory language in describing the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 Biden signed an Executive Order (EO 14031)ns, Native Hawaiia establishing the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders, and delivering on the President’s commitment to reinstate and reinvigorate this historic Initiative. Executive Order 14031 delivers on President Biden's commitment to reinstate and reinvigorate the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. To ensure that the federal government is mitigating COVID-19 related anti-Asian bias, advancing health equity, and ensuring AA and NHPI communities equitably recover from the pandemic, the Initiative is now housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where it was first created under the Clinton Administration.

1904 Extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act "Congress extended the Chinese exclusion laws in perpetuity in response to the Chinese government's efforts to leverage better conditions for Chinese travelers to the United States by abrogating earlier treaties. Chinese communities organized an anti-American boycott in protest." See also Anti American Boycott
1907 Expatriation Act "Under the principle that women assumed the citizenship of their husbands, this act stripped citizenship from U.S.-born women when they married noncitizen immigrant men."
1907-1908 Gentlemen’s Agreement "Rather than enacting racially discriminatory and offensive immigration laws, President Theodore Roosevelt sought to avoid offending the rising world power of Japan through this negotiated agreement by which the Japanese government limited the immigration of its own citizens. "
1913 California Alien Land Law On May 3, 1913, California enacted the Alien Land Law, barring Asian immigrants from owning land. California tightened the law further in 1920 and 1923, barring the leasing of land and land ownership by American-born children of Asian immigrant parents or by corporations controlled by Asian immigrants.
1917 : Immigration Act/ Literacy Act/ Asiatic Barred Zone Act This Act was intended to restrict immigrants from Asia and surrounding countries, as well as immigrants with mental and physical handicaps.

1917 Immigration Act
The original document.

1920 California Alien Land Law See also
1921 : Emergency Quota Act (the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 the Per Centum Law/ the Johnson Quota Act ): This Act limited the numbers of immigrants to the United States by imposing quotas based on country of birth. The annual admitted immigrants were restricted to 3% of the number of the United States residents from the same country according to the 1910 United States Census.

1921 The Emergency Quota Act
The original document.

1922 Cable Act "After women gained suffrage with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, Congress swiftly enacted this law to restore citizenship to U.S.-born women who had married noncitizen husbands and thereby lost their citizenship under the Expatriation Act of 1907."
1924: The Immigration Act (The Johnson-Reed Act) The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.
1924 Labor Appropriations Act "Immigration within the American hemisphere remained uncapped until 1965; however, in 1924 Congress authorized funding for the Border Patrol to regulate crossings occurring between immigration stations."
1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act "Completing the racial exclusion of Asians, Congress imposed immigration restrictions on Filipinos by granting the Philippines eventual independence. Previously, Filipinos could immigrate freely as U.S. nationals from a colony of the United States."
1942 : Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Internment of Japanese Americans Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. Congress then implemented the order on March 21, 1942, by passing Public Law 503. the Western Defense Command began involuntary removal and detention of West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry. In the next 6 months, approximately 122,000 men, women, and children were moved to assembly centers. They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps.

1942 : Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Internment of Japanese Americans
The original document.

1943 Magnuson Act -- Repeal of Chinese Exclusion "The importance of China as the U.S. government's chief ally in the Pacific war against Japan led Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion laws, placing China under the same immigration restrictions as European countries."
1945 : Charter ratified United Nations On June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, the United Nations was established. Article 111 of its charter indicated that "The present Charter, of which the Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall remain deposited in the archives of the Government of the United States of America. Duly certified copies thereof shall be transmitted by that Government to the Governments of the other signatory states."

1945 United Nations Charter

1945 & 1946 War Brides Acts "Congress enacted exceptions to the national origins quotas imposed by the Immigration Act of 1924 in order to help World War II soldiers and veterans bring back foreign spouses and fiances they had met while serving in the military."
1946 Luce-Celler Act "This law further undermined Asian exclusion by extending naturalization rights and immigration quotas to Filipinos and Indians as wartime allies."
1952 : Immigration & Nationality Act PL 82-414 "The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 upheld the national origins quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924, reinforcing this controversial system of immigrant selection. It also ended Asian exclusion from immigrating to the United States and introduced a system of preferences based on skill sets and family reunification." See the Definitions.
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Click here for the original document.
1953：Refugee Relief Act "Dissatisfaction with the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act inspired support for this legislation which provided 214,000 visas to refugees, primarily from Europe but with 5,000 designated for the Far East."
1961 Act of September 26, "This law added more exceptions to immigration restriction by national quotas by categorizing international adoption as a form of family reunification. "
1962 : Migration and Refugee Assistance Act "This law opened the door to immigration by highly skilled workers from countries with low immigration quotas, anticipating the Immigration Act of 1965's emphasis on employment preferences. "
1964 : Civil Rights Act "This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction."

1964 : Civil Rights Act
The original document.

1965 : Immigration & Nationality Act Amendments PL 89-236 "This law set the main principles for immigration regulation still enforced today. It applied a system of preferences for family reunification (75 percent), employment (20 percent), and refugees (5 percent) and for the first time capped immigration from the within Americas. "
1974： Trade Act PL 93-618
Click here for the original document.
1975 Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act "The United States made provisions to admit about 135,000 Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians in the months following the fall of Saigon, resettle them across the United States with resources to help them establish new lives. "
1976 & 1978 Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments "The 1976 Amendments extended to the Western Hemisphere a per country ceiling of 20,000 and a modified preference system for arrivals. In 1978, the law was further amended to establish a single worldwide annual ceiling of 290,000."
1980 : Refugee Act "While adhering to the UN standard for defining refugees, this law made U.S. refugee policy more responsive to changing situations through the implementation of annual admissions quotas that could be adjusted annually after consultation between Congress and the White House." Click here for the original document.
1982 : Plyler v. Doe
1986 : Immigration Reform and Control Act "This legislation was passed in order to control and deter illegal immigration to the United States. Its major provisions stipulate legalization of undocumented aliens who had been continuously unlawfully present since 1982, legalization of certain agricultural workers, sanctions for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers, and increased enforcement at U.S. borders." -- USCIS
1986: Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act
Click here for the original document.
1990 : Immigration Act This Act "increased the limits on legal immigration to the United States, revised all grounds for exclusion and deportation, authorized temporary protected status to aliens of designated countries, revised and established new nonimmigrant admission categories, revised and extended the Visa Waiver Pilot Program, and revised naturalization authority and requirements." -- USCIS
1992 Chinese Student Protection Act "Legislated in response to the brutal Chinese government crackdowns on student protests in Tiananmen in 1989, this law permitted Chinese students living in the United States to gain legal permanent status."
1994 : California Proposition 187
1999 : Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act
Click here for the original document.

1790 Naturalization Act of
"This 1790 act set the new nation's naturalization procedures. It limited access to U.S. citizenship to white immigrants—in effect, to people from Western Europe."
1798 : Alien and Sedition Acts
"The Alien and Sedition Acts tightened restrictions on foreign-born Americans and limited speech critical of the Government."
1862 CHAP. XXVII. – An Act to prohibit the ” Coolie Trade” by American Citizens in American Vessels.
"This conflation of Chinese contract workers with African slaves and unfree “coolies” later fueled anti-Chinese immigration campaigns."
1864 Immigration Act
"This law legalized labor recruitment practices similar to indentured servitude in an attempt to encourage immigration to the United States, but it was quickly repealed."

1868 Burlingame Treaty
This international agreement between China and the United States secured United States access to Chinese workers for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, which relied heavily on Chinese labor, by guaranteeing rights of free migration to both Chinese and Americans. See also BURLINGAME TREATY OF 1868

1868 14th Amendment
"Ratified in 1868 to secure equal treatment for African Americans after the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed birthright citizenship for all persons born in the United States. It also provided for equal protections and due process for all legal residents.."
1870 Naturalization Act of
The Act extended the naturalization process to "aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent" while also maintaining exclusion of the process to naturalized Asian Americans.
1875 Page Act of
This Act allowed the consul-general or consul at port cities.to decide and bar an individual’s entry to the United States. Thus prohibited the recruitment of laborers from “China, Japan or any Oriental country” and effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women. See also Forbidden Families: Emigration Experiences of Chinese Women under the Page Law 1875-1882
1880 Angell Treaty
"This treaty updated the 1868 Burlingame Treaty with China, allowing the United Stated to restrict the migration of certain categories of Chinese workers. It moved U.S. immigration policy closer to outright Chinese exclusion."
1882 : Chinese Exclusion Act
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 moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.
See also: Angel Island

1882 : Chinese Exclusion Act
The original document.

1882 Immigration Act
"Legislated a few months after the Chinese Exclusion Law, this immigration legislation expanded the ranks of excludable aliens to include other undesirable persons and attributes such as "convicts," "lunatics," and "those likely to become a public charge.""
1885 : Alien Contract Labor Law/Foran Act
The act prohibited certain laborers from immigrating to the United States.

1885 Alien Contract Law/Foran Act
The original document.

1888 Scott Act
The Act was introduced to expand upon the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882 and made reentry to the United States after a visit to China impossible.
1891 Immigration Act
This 1891 immigration law clarified and centralized the immigration enforcement authority of the federal government, extended immigration inspection to land borders, and expanded the list of excludable and deportable immigrants.
1892 Geary Act
"Congress renewed the Chinese exclusion laws and expanded enforcement mechanisms by requiring that Chinese prove their lawful presence in the United States by carrying a Certificate of Residence, a precursor of the green card system, or be liable for detention and deportation. "

Examples of Bias Court Cases Against Asian Americans

People v. Hall, 4 Cal. 399 1854 A Chinese was denied as the witness of a murder case against a white criminal defendant because the Chinese were “a race of people whom nature has marked as inferior, and who are incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point. …”
"Shall law stand for naught?": the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871 at trial Spitzerri, Paul R. "'Shall law stand for naught?': the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871 at trial." California Legal History, 2008, p. 185+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://go-gale-com.ezproxy.skylinecollege.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=plan_skyline&id=GALE%7CA225794132&v=2.1&it=r. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.
CHY LUNG v. FREEMAN ET AL. : The Case of 22 Lewd Chinese Women "It is a most extraordinary statute. It provides that the Commissioner of Immigration is "to satisfy himself whether or not any passenger who shall arrive in the State by vessels from any foreign port or place (who is not a citizen of the United States) is lunatic, idiotic, deaf, dumb, blind, crippled, or infirm, and is not accompanied by relatives who are able and willing to support him, or is likely to become a public charge, or has been a pauper in any other country, or is from sickness or disease (existing either at the time of sailing from the port of departure or at the time of his arrival in the State) a public charge, or likely soon to become so, or is a convicted criminal, or a lewd or debauched woman;" and no such person shall be permitted to land from the vessel, unless the master or owner or consignee shall give a separate bond in each case, conditioned to save harmless every county, city, and town of the State against any expense incurred for the relief, support, or care of such person for two years thereafter."
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See also CHY LUNG v. FREEMAN ET AL

CHY LUNG v. FREEMAN ET AL. 92 U.S. 275 1876.

Sept. 1, 1887: A Massacre Of Chinese Miners "In 1887, an Oregon jury acquitted three men in the mass murder of Chinese miners on Hells Canyon. Despite a confession, no one was ever held accountable."
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See also Files Found in Oregon Detail Massacre of Chinese
Chae Chan Ping v. United States 1889 "This Supreme Court decision affirmed the plenary powers of U.S. federal authorities over immigration matters, in this instance even when changes in U.S. immigration law reversed earlier policy and practice."
Fong Yue Ting v United States 1892 "This Supreme Court decision ruled as constitutional the 1892 Geary Act's requirement that Chinese residents, and only Chinese residents, carry Certificates of Residence to prove their legal entry to the United States, or be subject to detention and deportation. "
Wong Wing v. United States 1896 "This Supreme Court decision that detention by immigration authorities does not constitute a criminal punishment, affirming the lesser rights of excludable aliens."
Ozawa v. United States 1922 "The hardening of U.S. isolationism set the stage for the Supreme Court to affirm the 1790 Nationality Act's stipulation that Asians are ineligible for naturalization because they are racially not "white" regardless of their demonstrated acculturation and integration."
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind 261 U.S. 204 1923 The Supreme Court decided that Bhagat Singh Thind was ineligible for citizenship as an Asian Indian. The decision led to the denaturalization of other Asian Indian Americans who had earlier successfully applied for and received U.S. citizenship; resulting in the suicide ofThe Alliance for Asian American Justice will coordinate and drive law firm pro bono resources on behalf of victims to assist and support them in obtaining legal remedies. This can include providing victims with counsel to bring lawsuits to seek compensatory and other civil remedies or working with law enforcement to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable, where appropriate. We will also identify additional resources, when relevant, that will help victims navigate this challenging time, including specialized legal services, social services, and other community support. If you have a complaint, you should reach out to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund at StopTheHate@aaldef.org, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), or National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.
Korematsu v. United States 1944 "On Dec. 18, 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Korematsu v. United States that the denial of civil liberties based on race and national origin was legal."
People v. Oyama 1945 "The Oyama case grew out of California's "Alien Land Act," enacted in 1913, further amended in 1920, and originally upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court three years later. According to this law (and the copycat laws subsequently enacted in other Western states) Japanese and other Asian immigrants who were "ineligible for citizenship" under federal law were forbidden to own agricultural property. ,,, The People v. Oyama case, along with a companion case, People v. Hirose , was argued in San Diego Superior Court in February 1945. The trial judge refused to examine the Act's constitutionality, and ruled against the Oyamas." The case was reviewed by the United States Supreme Court in Oyama vs. California and overruled.
The Convicted Murderers "weren't the kind of men you send to jail." -- wrote Michigan Judge Charles Kaufman brusquely in a letter to a Detroit civil rights group protesting the decision. "Ronald Ebens pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in 1983. He was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $3,700 by Judge Charles Kaufman. A second defendant, Michael Nitz, Mr. Ebens's stepson, pleaded no contest and received the same sentence and fine." ;;;"the sentence was overturned on appeal. Ebens and Nitz never spent a day in jail."

Anti-Asian/Asian American Racism: A Resource Guide: Policy and Laws

Resources

Regulated Legislation (Note: The original documents are also primary sources)

Examples of Bias Court Cases Against Asian Americans

Pro Bono Legal Services to Victims of Anti-Asian Hate