Laws Harsh As Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law (Studies in Legal History)

Focusing primarily on the exclusion of the Chinese, Lucy Salyer analyzes the popular and legal debates surrounding immigration law and its enforcement during the height of nativist sentiment in the early twentieth century. She argues that the struggles between Chinese immigrants, U.S. government officials, and the lower federal courts that took place around the turn of the century established fundamental principles that continue to dominate immigration law today and make it unique among branches of American law. By establishing the centrality of the Chinese to immigration policy, Salyer also integrates the history of Asian immigrants on the West Coast with that of European immigrants in the East. Salyer demonstrates that Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans mounted sophisticated and often-successful legal challenges to the enforcement of exclusionary immigration policies. Ironically, their persistent litigation contributed to the development of legal doctrines that gave the Bureau of Immigration increasing power to counteract resistance. Indeed, by 1924, immigration law had begun to diverge from constitutional norms, and the Bureau of Immigration had emerged as an exceptionally powerful organization, free from many of the constraints imposed upon other government agencies. Ch. 1. From Counting To Sifting Immigrants -- Ch. 2. Contesting Exclusion: The Chinese And The Administrators -- Ch. 3. Captives Of Law: Judicial Enforcement Of The Chinese Exclusion Laws -- Ch. 4. The Eclipse Of Judicial Justice -- Ch. 5. Drawing The Sieve Tighter: The Rise Of Nativism And Administrative Power -- Ch. 6. Bureaucratic Tyranny: The Bureau Of Immigration And Its Critics -- Ch. 7. A Fair Though Summary Hearing: The Shaping Of Administrative Due Process -- Ch. 8. Its Own Keeper: Procedural Reform In The Bureau Of Immigration -- Epilogue: Immigration Law In American Legal Culture. Lucy E. Salyer. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 309-324) And Index. Focusing primarily on the exclusion of the Chinese, this study analyzes the debates surrounding immigration law and its enforcement during the height of nativist sentiment in the early-20th century. The author argues fundamental principles were established which still dominate immigration law.