Asians' Legal Struggle: Citizenship And Property Rights

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law to restrict immigration into the United States, suspending Chinese immigration for 10 years and explicitly barring Chinese people from becoming US citizens. This was followed by a wave of alien land laws, which employed the definition of citizenship to restrict primarily Chinese and Japanese people from purchasing and leasing land. These laws were enacted by more than a dozen states in the 19th and 20th centuries and were ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1952.

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

The Act was the culmination of growing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence, as well as various policies targeting Chinese migrants. This sentiment stemmed from economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination. Chinese labourers were often blamed for depressed wage levels due to their willingness to work for lower pay. There were also concerns about maintaining white "racial purity". Tales spread of Chinatowns as places where large numbers of Chinese men congregated to visit prostitutes, smoke opium, or gamble.

The Act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed and strengthened in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. These laws attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, and travellers. The laws were widely evaded, with some Chinese women, for example, travelling to Canada to get a marriage license in order to reunite with their families.

The Chinese Exclusion Act also affected the Chinese who had already settled in the United States. It made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from US citizenship. After the act's passage, Chinese men in the US had little chance of ever reuniting with their wives, or of starting families in their new abodes. Amendments made in 1884 tightened the provisions that allowed previous immigrants to leave and return and clarified that the law applied to ethnic Chinese regardless of their country of origin. The 1888 Scott Act expanded upon the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting re-entry into the US after leaving.

The Act was not repealed until 1943, when China had become an ally of the US against Japan in World War II, and the US needed to embody an image of fairness and justice.

Alien land laws

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act codified this racism, legally stopping Chinese immigration and declaring Chinese immigrants ineligible for citizenship. This opened the door for Japanese immigrants, who came in growing numbers to fill the labour gap. But they soon faced similar xenophobia, and federal laws like the Immigration Act of 1917 limited their immigration.

The laws used the definition of citizenship to discriminate against specific nationalities. For example, California's 1879 constitution stated that only aliens of "the white race or African descent" could purchase property. Similarly, Oregon's 1859 constitution stated that no "Chinaman" could own property in the state.

The laws had a significant impact on Asian immigrants' ability to own land. For example, the amount of agricultural land controlled by Japanese farmers decreased by approximately 40% between 1920 and 1930. However, some immigrants found ways to circumvent the laws, such as by purchasing property through white intermediaries or under the names of their American-born children.

The laws were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952, but many states did not officially remove them from their constitutions until decades later.

The Cable Act of 1922

The Cable Act was enacted to restore citizenship to US-born women who had married non-citizen husbands and lost their citizenship under the Expatriation Act of 1907. The law stated that:

> "The right of any woman to become a naturalized citizen of the United States shall not be denied or abridged because of her sex or because she is a married woman."

However, this law did not extend to women who married "aliens ineligible for citizenship", particularly Asian immigrant men. The Cable Act added further complications to the ban on citizenship for Asian immigrants, stripping US-born women of their citizenship if they married men who were ineligible for naturalization.

While the Cable Act aimed to grant women their own national identity, in practice, it still retained ties to coverture, linking a woman's legal identity to her husband's. As a result, it had to be amended multiple times before it granted women citizenship in their own right.

The Immigration Act of 1917

The 1917 Act was the culmination of growing anti-Asian sentiment in the United States, which had already led to various state-level laws discriminating against Asian immigrants. The Act's passage was influenced by fears of the "Yellow Peril," a perceived threat of Asian societies replacing American identity. This anxiety over cultural fragmentation led to policies aimed at restricting Asian immigration. The Act specifically barred people from countries or territories "adjacent to the continent of Asia," including China, British India, Afghanistan, Arabia, Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand), the Malay States, and the Dutch East Indies, among others. Notably, the Philippines and Japan were not included in this barred zone.

In addition to the barred zone and literacy test, the Act created new categories of inadmissible persons, consolidating and expanding the list of "undesirables" banned from entering the country. This included alcoholics, anarchists, contract labourers, criminals, convicts, epileptics, "feeble-minded persons," "idiots," "imbeciles," "insane persons," "paupers," "persons afflicted with contagious disease," "persons being mentally or physically defective," "political radicals," polygamists, prostitutes, and vagrants. The Act also increased the head tax to $8 per person and ended the exclusion of Mexican workers from this tax.

The Naturalization Act of 1870

The act was introduced by Republican Representative Noah Davis from New York in the US House of Representatives and co-sponsored by Republican Senator Roscoe Conkling from New York in the US Senate. It was passed by the 41st US Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on July 14, 1870.

The impact of the Naturalization Act of 1870 on Asian immigrants was significant. It effectively prohibited them from becoming citizens or owning property, as state alien land laws used the definition of naturalization to discriminate against specific nationalities. Despite this, Asian immigrants found ways to circumvent these laws, such as by purchasing property through white intermediaries or under the names of their American-born children.

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