“The Chinese Exclusion Act provided the legal means to deport Chinese. The Act gave local and state police officers and U.S. Marshalls the authority to arrest any Chinese person suspected of being in the country unlawfully.”
- Erika Lee, author of At America's Gates
“Immigration Inspectors raided repeatedly, sometimes as often as once a month |
“In 1902, the number of Chinese arrested (1,128) was more than double |
“The organization complained to California congressman Julius Kahn that citizens were routinely ‘stopped on the streets, in stores, dwellings, and apartments by inspectors; [they] are searched and ordered to deliver their papers and are subjected to numberless insults and intimidations. Our unoffending people are being treated with
little more respect than animals and every guaranty of the Constitution against unlawful searches is
being defied in this ruthless campaign just launched against our people.’”
- Native Sons of the Golden State, 1920
“I speak fluent English and have the American mind. I feel that I am more American than Chinese. I am an American citizen by birth, having the title for all rights, but they treat me as if I were a foreigner. They have so many restrictions against us.” |
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“The Chinese American citizens was ‘liable to arrest at any time and place by zealous immigration officials upon the change of being unlawfully in the country...He moves from place to place at his peril.’”
- Native Sons of the Golden State, 1920
“The immigration officers charge that many Chinese come in through crooked methods,
and the Chinese charge that the immigration officials are unjust in dealing with the Chinese.
So long as the wage scale in the U.S. is high, exclusion law cannot prevent the Chinese fortune-seekers
from knocking at the Golden Gate in disguise. And so long as the Chinese continue to come in violation of the exclusion laws, the immigration officials will continue to be harsh toward the Chinese.”
- Ching Chao Wu, Sociologist, 1928 from At America's Gates