July 17, 2023

By Scott Fletcher

In the early 20th century, Chinese immigrants to San Francisco were interred [on Angel Island] for quarantine purposes and to prove that they had certificates from the Chinese government allowing them entry into the United States. The isolationist-inspired Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining” from entering the United States. The Immigration Station became known as “the Ellis Island of the West.” More than 175,000 Chinese and Asian immigrants were interred there anywhere from a few weeks to more than two years before being granted immigration status or deported. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 but it was not until the early 1960s that all racial and country-of-origin barriers were removed from U.S. law.

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