Ancestors in the Americas: The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act

The Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act

Approved December 17, 1943

As a result of our wartime alliance with China, this act was passed by the U.S. Congress to repeal the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and subsequent acts, allowing for the first time in 60 years the legal immigration of Chinese into the U.S. However, the quota for Chinese was very low compared to European countries, a fact which was not altered until 1965.

Seventy-Eighth Congress. Session I. 1943
Chapter 344.

An Act to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts, to establish quotas, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following Acts or parts of Acts relating to the exclusion or deportation of persons of the Chinese race are hereby repealed:

May 6, 1882 (22 Stat. L. 58); July 5, 1884 (23 Stat. L. 115); September 13, 1888 (25 Stat. L. 476); October 1, 1888 (25 Stat. L. 504); May 5, 1892 (27 Stat. L. 25); November 3, 1893 (28 Stat. L. 7); that portion of section 1 of the Act of July 7, 1898 (30 Stat. L. 750, 751), which reads as follows:

"There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the Hawaiian Islands except upon such conditions as are now or may hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States; and no Chinese, by reason of anything herein contained, shall be allowed to enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands."; section 101 of the Act of April 30, 1900 (31 Stat. L. 141, 161); those portions of section 1 of the Act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat. L. 588, 611), which read as follows: "And nothing in section four of the Act of August fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two (twenty-second Statutes at Large, page two hundred and twenty-five), shall be constructed to prevent the Secretary of the Treasury from hereafter detailing one officer employed in the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Acts for duty at the Treasury department at Washington. * * * and hereafter the Commissioner General of Immigration, in addition to his other duties, shall have charge of the administration of the Chinese exclusion law * * * , under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of the Treasury."; March 3, 1901 (31 Stat. L. 1093); April 29, 1902 (32 Stat. L. 176); April 27, 1904 (33 Stat. L. 428); section 25 of the Act of March 3, 1911 (36 Stat. L. 1087, 1094); that portion of the Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. L. 417, 476), which reads as follows: "Provided, That all charges for maintenance or return of Chinese persons applying for admission to the United States shall hereafter be paid or reimbursed to the Unit ed States by the person, company, partnership, or corporation, bringing such Chinese to a port of the United States as applicants for admission."; that portion of the Act of June 23, 1913 (38 Stat. L. 4, 65), which reads as follows: "Provided, That from and after July first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, all Chinese persons ordered deported under judicial writs shall be delivered by the marshal of the district or his deputy into the custody of any officer designated for that purpose by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, for conveyance to the frontier or seaboard for deportation in the same manner as aliens deported under the immigration laws."

SEC. 2. With the exception of those coming under subsections (b), (d), (e), and (f) of section 4, Immigration Act of 1924 (43 Stat. 155; 44 Stat. 812; 45 Stat. 1009; 46 Stat. 854; 47 Stat. 656; 8 U.S.C. 2040, all Chinese persons entering the United States annually as immigrants shall be allocated to the quota for the Chinese computed under the provisions of section 11 of the said Act. A preference up to 75 per centum of the quota shall be given to Chinese born and resident in China.

SEC. 3. Section 303 of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended (54 Stat. 1140; 8 U.S.C. 703), is hereby amended by striking out the word "and" before the word "descendants", changing the colon after the word "Hemisphere" to a comma, and adding the following: "and Chinese persons or persons of Chinese descent".

Approved December 17, 1943
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Source: "Chinese Exclusion repeal Act of 1943" (Chap 344, 17 Dec. 1943), 57 United States Statutes at Large, pp. 600-601.
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Text courtesy of Andrew Tsai