On May 6, 1882, the United States barred a nationality by name for the first time and closed the path to citizenship behind them. The act was renewed, hardened and made permanent, and its legal logic never went away. The episode covers the Burlingame Treaty and its revision, the Scott Act's voiding of some twenty thousand return certificates, the Geary Act's internal passports and the Supreme Court's plenary power doctrine, which still governs immigration.
Who's who
- Anson BurlingameDiplomat who negotiated the 1868 free-migration treaty
- Rutherford B. Hayes+1 more episodePresident who vetoed the 1879 passenger bill as a treaty violation
- Chester A. ArthurPresident who signed the 1882 ten-year Exclusion Act
- Grover Cleveland+4 more episodesPresident who signed the 1888 Scott Act
- Chae Chan PingSan Francisco laborer whose case created plenary power
- Stephen J. FieldJustice who wrote the unanimous Chae Chan Ping opinion
- Thomas J. GearyCalifornia congressman who authored the 1892 Geary Act
- Fong Yue TingNew York laborer who lost the 1893 registration test case
Where it happens
- Washington, D.C.+31 more episodesWhere the exclusion laws and Supreme Court cases were decided
- San Francisco, California+12 more episodesPort where return certificate holders were turned back
Timeline
- July 1868Burlingame Treaty recognizes free migration as an inalienable right
- May 6, 1882Chinese Exclusion Act signed
- October 1888Scott Act voids about 20,000 return certificates
- May 1889Chae Chan Ping v. United States creates plenary power doctrine
- May 1892Geary Act extends exclusion and requires residence certificates
- May 1893Fong Yue Ting v. United States upholds registration and deportation
Still debated
Scott Act figures vary, with roughly 20,000 certificates voided and several hundred holders literally at sea. Geary Act refusal numbers also differ by region, though the overwhelming majority refused to register.
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