[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 282 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 282

 Expressing the regret of the House of Representatives for the passage 
   of discriminatory laws against the Chinese in the United States, 
                  including the Chinese Exclusion Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 2011

 Ms. Chu (for herself, Mrs. Biggert, Mr. Coffman of Colorado, and Mr. 
Rohrabacher) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                     the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the regret of the House of Representatives for the passage 
   of discriminatory laws against the Chinese in the United States, 
                  including the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Whereas many Chinese came to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, 
        as did peoples from other countries, in search of the opportunity to 
        create a better life for themselves and their families;
Whereas the contributions of persons of Chinese descent in the agriculture, 
        mining, manufacturing, construction, fishing, and canning industries 
        were critical to establishing the foundations for economic growth in the 
        Nation, particularly in the Western United States;
Whereas United States industrialists recruited thousands of Chinese workers to 
        assist in the construction of the Nation's first major national 
        transportation infrastructure, the Transcontinental Railroad;
Whereas Chinese laborers, who made up the majority of the western portion of the 
        railroad workforce, faced grueling hours and extremely harsh conditions 
        in order to lay hundreds of miles of track and were paid substandard 
        wages;
Whereas without the tremendous efforts and technical contributions of these 
        Chinese immigrants, the completion of this vital national infrastructure 
        would have been seriously impeded;
Whereas from the middle of the 19th century through the early 20th century, 
        Chinese immigrants faced racial ostracism and violent assaults, 
        including the 1887 Snake River Massacre in Oregon, at which 31 Chinese 
        miners were killed, and numerous other incidents, including attacks on 
        Chinese immigrants in Rock Springs, San Francisco, Tacoma, and Los 
        Angeles;
Whereas the United States instigated the negotiation of the Burlingame Treaty, 
        ratified on October 19, 1868, which permitted the free movement of the 
        Chinese people to, from, and within the United States and accorded to 
        China the status of ``most favored nation'';
Whereas Chinese immigrants were subject to the over-zealous implementation of 
        the Page Act of 1875 (18 Stat. 477), which ostensibly barred the 
        importation of women from ``China, Japan or any Oriental country'' for 
        purposes of prostitution but was disproportionately enforced against 
        Chinese women, effectively preventing the formation of Chinese families 
        in the United States;
Whereas, in 1878, notwithstanding the freedom of movement promised to Chinese 
        immigrants by the Burlingame Treaty, the House of Representatives passed 
        a resolution requesting that President Rutherford B. Hayes renegotiate 
        the Treaty so that legislation could be passed limiting Chinese 
        immigration to the United States;
Whereas, on February 22, 1879, notwithstanding the fact that the Burlingame 
        Treaty had not been renegotiated, the House passed the Fifteen Passenger 
        Bill, which would have limited the number of Chinese passengers 
        permitted on any ship coming to the United States to 15, with the House 
        Committee Report stressing the Chinese people's ``sordid, selfish, 
        immoral and non-amalgamating habits'';
Whereas, on March 1, 1879, President Hayes vetoed the Fifteen Passenger Bill as 
        being incompatible with the Burlingame Treaty, which declared that 
        ``Chinese subjects visiting or residing in the United States, shall 
        enjoy the same privileges . . . in respect to travel or residence, as 
        may there be enjoyed by the citizens and subjects of the most favored 
        nation'';
Whereas in the aftermath of the veto of the Fifteen Passenger Bill, President 
        Hayes initiated the renegotiation of the Burlingame Treaty, requesting 
        that the Chinese government consent to restrictions on the immigration 
        of Chinese persons to the United States;
Whereas these negotiations culminated in the Angell Treaty, ratified by the 
        United States on May 9, 1881, which allowed the United States to 
        suspend, but not to prohibit, the immigration of Chinese laborers, 
        declared that ``Chinese laborers who are now in the United States shall 
        be allowed to go and come of their own free will,'' and reaffirmed that 
        Chinese persons possessed ``all the rights, privileges, immunities, and 
        exemptions which are accorded to the citizens and subjects of the most 
        favored nation'';
Whereas, on March 23, 1882, the House passed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, 
        which purported to implement the Angell Treaty but instead excluded for 
        20 years both skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers, rejected an 
        amendment that would have permitted the naturalization of Chinese 
        persons, and instead expressly denied Chinese persons the right to be 
        naturalized as American citizens;
Whereas, on April 4, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur vetoed the first Chinese 
        Exclusion Act as being incompatible with the terms and spirit of the 
        Angell Treaty;
Whereas, on April 17, 1882, under suspension of the rules, the House passed the 
        second Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited skilled and unskilled 
        Chinese laborers from entering the United States for 10 years, was the 
        first Federal law that excluded a single group of people on the basis of 
        race, and required certain Chinese laborers already legally present in 
        the United States who later wished to reenter the United States to 
        obtain ``certificates of return'', an unprecedented requirement that 
        applied only to Chinese residents;
Whereas in response to reports that courts were bestowing United States 
        citizenship on persons of Chinese descent, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 
        1882 explicitly prohibited all State and Federal courts from 
        naturalizing Chinese persons;
Whereas the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 underscored the belief of Congress at 
        that time that the Chinese people were unfit to be naturalized and, as 
        expressed in the House Committee Report accompanying that Act, that the 
        Chinese came to the United States ``without the intention to make it 
        their permanent residence'' and ``that they retain their distinctive 
        peculiarities and characteristics, refusing to assimilate themselves to 
        our institutions, and remaining a separate and distinct class, 
        intrenched [sic] behind immovable prejudices; that their ignorance or 
        disregard of sanitary laws, as evidenced in their habits of life, breeds 
        disease, pestilence, and death; that their claim of superiority as to 
        religion and civilization, destroys all hope of their improvement from 
        contact with our institutions'';
Whereas, on May 3, 1884, notwithstanding United States treaty obligations with 
        China and other nations, the House by a vote of 184-13 broadened the 
        scope of the Chinese Exclusion Act to apply it to all persons of Chinese 
        descent, ``whether subjects of China or any other foreign power'', and 
        to provide more stringent requirements restricting Chinese immigration;
Whereas, on September 3, 1888, the House by voice vote passed the Scott Act, 
        which prohibited all Chinese laborers who would choose or had chosen to 
        leave the United States from reentering, cancelled all previously issued 
        ``certificates of return'' preventing approximately 20,000 Chinese 
        laborers abroad, including 600 individuals who were en route to the 
        United States, from returning to their families or their homes, and was 
        later determined by the Supreme Court to have abrogated the Angell 
        Treaty;
Whereas, on April 4, 1892, under suspension of the rules, the House passed the 
        Geary Act, which extended the Chinese Exclusion Act another 10 years, 
        required that all Chinese persons in the United States, but no other 
        race of people, register with the Federal Government in order to obtain 
        ``certificates of residence'', and denied Chinese immigrants the right 
        to be released on bail upon application for a writ of habeas corpus;
Whereas, on an explicitly racial basis, the Geary Act deemed the testimony of 
        Chinese persons, including American citizens of Chinese descent, per se 
        insufficient to establish the residency of a Chinese person subject to 
        deportation, mandating that such residence be established through the 
        testimony of ``at least one credible white witness'';
Whereas in the 1894 Gresham-Yang Treaty, the Chinese government consented to a 
        prohibition of Chinese immigration and the enforcement of the Geary Act 
        in exchange for readmission of previous Chinese residents;
Whereas, in 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii, took control of the 
        Philippines, and excluded thousands of racially Chinese residents of 
        Hawaii and the Philippines from entering the United States mainland;
Whereas, on April 29, 1902, Congress indefinitely extended all laws regulating 
        and restricting Chinese immigration and residence, and expressly applied 
        such laws to United States insular territories, including the 
        Philippines;
Whereas, in 1904, after the Chinese government exercised its unilateral right to 
        withdraw from the Gresham-Yang Treaty, Congress permanently extended, 
        ``without modification, limitation, or condition'', all restrictions on 
        Chinese immigration and naturalization, making the Chinese the only 
        racial group explicitly singled out for immigration exclusion and 
        permanently ineligible for American citizenship;
Whereas, between 1910 and 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station implemented 
        the Chinese exclusion laws by confining Chinese persons for up to nearly 
        two years, interrogating Chinese persons, and providing a model for 
        similar immigration stations at other locations on the Pacific coast and 
        in Hawaii;
Whereas each of the congressional debates concerning issues of Chinese civil 
        rights, naturalization, and immigration involved intensely racial 
        rhetoric, with many Members of Congress claiming that all persons of 
        Chinese descent were unworthy of American citizenship, incapable of 
        assimilation into American society, and dangerous to the political and 
        social integrity of the United States;
Whereas the express discrimination in these Federal statutes politically and 
        racially stigmatized Chinese immigration into the United States, 
        enshrining in law the exclusion of the Chinese from the political 
        process and the promise of American freedom;
Whereas wartime enemy forces used the anti-Chinese legislation passed in 
        Congress as evidence of American racism against the Chinese, attempting 
        to undermine the Chinese-American alliance and allied military efforts;
Whereas, in 1943, at the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and over 60 
        years after the enactment of the first discriminatory laws aimed at 
        Chinese immigrants, Congress repealed previously enacted anti-Chinese 
        legislation and permitted Chinese immigrants to become United States 
        citizens;
Whereas despite facing decades of systematic, pervasive, and sustained 
        discrimination, Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans persevered and 
        have continued to play a significant role in the growth and success of 
        the United States;
Whereas six decades of Federal legislation deliberately targeting Chinese 
        persons by race affected the capacity of generations of individuals and 
        families to pursue life in America openly and without fear, and fostered 
        an atmosphere of racial discrimination that deeply prejudiced their 
        civil rights;
Whereas diversity is one of our Nation's greatest strengths, and, while this 
        Nation was founded on the principle that all persons are created equal, 
        the laws enacted by Congress in the late 19th and early 20th centuries 
        that restricted the political and civil rights of persons of Chinese 
        descent violated that principle;
Whereas although an acknowledgement of the actions of the House of 
        Representatives that contributed to discrimination against persons of 
        Chinese descent will not erase the past, such an expression will 
        acknowledge and illuminate the injustices in our national experience, 
        and help to build a better and stronger Nation;
Whereas the House of Representatives recognizes the importance of addressing 
        this unique framework of discriminatory laws in order to educate the 
        public and future generations regarding the impact of these laws on 
        Chinese and other Asian persons and their implications to all Americans; 
        and
Whereas the House of Representatives deeply regrets the enactment of the Chinese 
        Exclusion Act and related discriminatory laws that resulted in the 
        persecution and political alienation of persons of Chinese descent, 
        unfairly limited their civil rights, legitimized racial discrimination, 
        and induced trauma within that community: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) acknowledges that this framework of anti-Chinese 
        legislation, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, is 
        incompatible with the basic founding principles recognized in 
        the Declaration of Independence that all persons are created 
        equal;
            (2) acknowledges that this pattern of anti-Chinese 
        legislation, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, is 
        incompatible with the spirit of the United States Constitution;
            (3) deeply regrets passing six decades of legislation 
        directly targeting the Chinese people for physical and 
        political exclusion and the wrongs committed against Chinese 
        and American citizens of Chinese descent who suffered under 
        these discriminatory laws; and
            (4) reaffirms its commitment to preserving the same civil 
        rights and constitutional protections for people of Chinese or 
        other Asian descent in the United States accorded to all 
        others, regardless of their race or ethnicity.
                                 <all>