Asian American History and the Making of the U.S. Immigration System

Introduction

Detained in this wooden house for several tens of days,

It is all because of the Mexican exclusion law²⁷ which implicates me.

It’s a pity heroes have no way of exercising their prowess,

I can only await the word so that I can snap Zu’s whip.²⁸

From now on, I am departing far from this building.

All my fellow villagers are rejoicing with me.

Don’t say that everything within is Western styled.  

Even if it is built of jade, it has turned into a cage.

-Anonymous (Chinese poem carved into the walls of the Angel Island detention barracks.)¹

How did we come to be in the United States?  How did we get here?  What relatives made the choice to immigrate to America?  Why did they leave their home?  What struggles did they face, sacrifices made? Where did my relatives enter the United States, with 314 points of entry? These are a few of the many questions we can ask ourselves about our family’s personal stories and living in America today.  According to recent American census data, a quarter of the nation’s children have at least one foreign-born parent.  84 million Americans are immigrants, or children of immigrants.  America appears to have its door wide open, or slightly ajar to immigration, and has so throughout history.  But as the above poem written by a Chinese man imprisoned on Angle Island suggest, only if you have the right name, the right skin color, the right networks, the right religion, or the right immigration status.

To understand who gets to build a life in America – and who is kept out – we must look closely at the shadow cast by the Asian Exclusion era (1875-1943).  Tracing U.S. immigration and naturalization history from the Naturalization Act of 1790 to modern policy reveals a long lineage of legislative choices and legal battles.  Together, these laws and court decisions systematically engineered demographic landscapes, revealing deep-seated biases in how the United States has historically defined belonging, opportunity, and citizenship.

This unit will contain history, vocabulary, questions, and supporting evidence to inspire the student to successfully engage in study and in their assignment.  The climax of the unit will be an historical oral interview of a family member (or another adult) by the student.  We can then share answers we found through historical research to the following questions…. Why am I here and how did I get here?