Thread by @XiranJayZhao

THREAD: How anti-Chinese racism led to the establishment of US immigration controls

So before the late 1800s, the US basically had open borders. People just showed up on ships and went about their business. But attitudes changed when large numbers of Chinese immigrants came 1/?

If you look at the early legal cases about immigration, it was mostly drama involving Chinese people. Chy Lung v. Freeman established immigration as a federal issue, and it was brought on because California tried to deport 22 Chinese women on suspicion of prostitution 2/?

The Page Act of 1875 was the very first federal immigration law, and it was directed at female Chinese immigrants bc, again, Californians were so scared that they were secretly prostitutes here to corrupt American society and give diseases to white men 3/?

Then came the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first law to restrict immigrants specifically based on race. It was passed under the call of white laborers who were angry that Chinese ones were bringing down their wages 4/?

But here's the thing: when this law was passed, the US actually had no existing immigrant control infrastructure to enforce it. So they were stumbling around to figure out how they could ban Chinese people from coming, which slowly led to borders controls as they look now 5/?

Immigration officials, passports, green cards, deportation policies - these are all things that came about to restrict Chinese immigrants. US Customs initially had nothing to do with immigration, but they were thrown the responsibility bc they were already set up at the ports 6/?

The Bureau of Immigration wasn't established until 1891, 9 years after the Chinese Exclusion Act. Before that, it was basically a bunch of local officers at ports interpreting the law however they wanted bc there was so little guidance, and usually they went as strict as possible

The 1882 Act had a 10 year limit at first, then the 1892 Geary Act extended it while bringing in a new requirement of certificates of residence and identity that proved their right to be in the US (early green cards). No immigrants except Chinese ones had to have these until 1928

the reason why Chinese immigrants had to carry so many documents was bc white people legit could not tell them apart. they were so stressed about it, y'all. like "OH GOD ANY CHINESE MAN COULD REPLACE ANOTHER AND WE'D NEVER KNOW. MUST DOCUMENT EXTENSIVELY."

for a few years the Bureau of Immigration even implemented the Bertillon system to document Chinese immigrants, which is a system meant for criminals that records measurements of your limbs, ears, head, teeth, and genitalia so you absolutely cannot pull an identity switch

in 1905, Chinese ppl were straight up banned from using federal district courts. so whatever decision the Bureau of Immigration made about their case, they couldn't appeal it anymore!!

Before that, courts used to overturn half the cases where Chinese ppl were denied entry

border controls were pretty openly about making America a white supremacist nation, and the biggest contrast was between the immigrant detention centers at Ellis Island near the Atlantic and Angel Island near the Pacific (i forgot how many tweets i'm at / ?)

White immigrants who got off steamships only had to stay at Ellis Island for a few hours or a few days at most. Asian immigrants were detained on Angel Island for weeks to years. The process was deliberately made as grueling as possible to discourage their immigration

anyway, a lot of this info I read in At America's Gates by Erika Lee. It goes a lot deeper into how anti-Chinese tactics were used as THE framework to restrict further "undesirables" like other Asians, Southern Europeans, and now Muslims. It's really the same bs over and over.

the usual anti-immigrant rhetoric:

- THEY'RE TAKING OUR JOBS
- THEY'RE GOING TO OVERRUN OUR COUNTRY IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING NOW!! RIGHT NOW!!
- THEIR CULTURAL CUSTOMS ARE BACKWARD AND HAVE NO PLACE HERE

LITERALLY THE SAME SHIT SINCE THE 1870s

more diaspora history: twitter.com/i/events/12806…