Chapter 1015.
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CHAP. 1015.— An act to prohibit the coining of Chinese laborers to the United States.September 13, 1888. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Chinese laborers.Immigration prohibited.*Post*, p. 504. That from and after the date of the exchange of ratifications of the pending treaty between the United States of America and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China, signed on the twelfth day of March, anno Domini eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, it shall be unlawful for any Chinese person, whether a subject of China or of any of her power, to enter the United States, except as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 2. Classes permitted to enter.That Chinese officials, teachers, students, merchants, or travelers for pleasure or curiosity, shall be permitted to enter the United States, but in order to entitle themselves to do so, they shall first obtain the permission of the Chinese Government, or other Government of which they may at the time be citizens or subjects. Such permission and also their personal identity shall in such case Certificates to be obtained.be evidenced by a certificate to be made out by the diplomatic representative of the United States in the country, or of the consular representative of the United States at the port or place from which the person named therein comes.
The certificate shall contain a full description of such person, of his age, height, and general physical features, and shall state his former and present occupation or profession and place of residence, and shall be made out in duplicate. One copy shall be delivered open to the person named and described, and the other copy shall be sealed up and delivered by the diplomatic or consular officer as aforesaid to the captain of the vessel on which the person named in the certificate sets sail for the United States, together with the sealed certificate, which shall be addressed to the collector of customs at the port where such person is to land.
There shall be delivered to the aforesaid captain a letter from the consular officer addressed to the collector of customs aforesaid, and stating that said consular officer has on a certain day delivered to the said captain a certificate of the right of the person named therein to enter the United States as a Chinese official, or other exempted person, as Penalty for violation.the case may be. And any captain who hinds or attempts to land a Chinese person in the United States, without having in his possession a sealed certificate, as required in this section, shall be liable to the penalties prescribed in section nine of this act.
Sec. 3. Scope of act.That the provisions of this act shall apply to all persons of the Chinese race, whether subjects of China or other foreign power, excepting Chinese diplomatic or consular officers and their attendants; and the words “Chinese laborers,” whenever used in this act, shall be construed to mean both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining. Sec. 4. Master to deliver certificates, etc., on arrival in United States.That the master of any vessel arriving in the United States from any foreign port or place with any Chinese passengers on board shall, when he delivers his manifest of cargo, and if there be no cargo, when he makes legal entry of his vessel, and before landing or permitting to land any Chinese person (unless a diplomatic or consular officer, or attendant of such officer), deliver to the collector of customs of the district in which the vessel shall have arrived FIFTIETH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Ch. 1015. 1888.477 the sealed certificates and letters as aforesaid, and a separate list of allList to be delivered. Chinese persons taken on board of his vessel at any foreign port or place, and of all such persons on board at the time of arrival as aforesaid. Such list shall show the names of such persons and other particulars as shown by their open certificates, or other evidencesContents of list. required by this act, and such list shall be sworn to by the master in the manner required by law in relation to the manifest of the cargo.
The master of any vessel as aforesaid shall not permit any ChineseDiplomatic and consular officers. diplomatic or consular officer or attendant of such officer to land without having first been informed by the collector of customs of the official character of such officer or attendant. Any refusal orPenalty. willful neglect of the master of any vessel to comply with the provisions of this section shall incur the same penalties and forfeitures as are provided for a refusal or neglect to report and deliver a manifest of the cargo.
Sec. 5. That from and after the passage of this act, no ChineseReturn of laborers prohibited. laborer in the United States shall be permitted, after having left, to return thereto, except under the conditions stated in the following sections. Sec. 6. That no Chinese laborer within the purview of the precedingConditions for permission to return. section shall be permitted to return to the United States unless he has a lawful wife, child, or parent in the United States, or property therein of the value of one thousand dollars, or debts of like amount due him and pending settlement.
The marriage to such wife must have taken place at least a year prior to the application of the laborer for a permit to return to the United States, and must have been followed by the continuous cohabitation of the parties as man and wife. If the right to return be claimed on the ground of property or ofProperty requisites debts, it must appear that the property is bona fide and not colorably acquired for the purpose of evading this act, or that the debts are unascertained and unsettled, and not promissory notes or other similar acknowledgments of ascertained liability.
Sec. 7. That a Chinese person claiming the right to be permittedIdentification of Chinese wishing to return to leave the United States and return thereto on any of the grounds stated in the foregoing section, shall apply to the collector of customs of the district from which he wishes to depart at least a month prior to the time of his departure, and shall make on oath before the said collector a full statement descriptive of his family, or property, or debts, as the case may be, and shall furnish to said collector such proofs of the facts entitling him to return as shall be required by the rules and regulations prescribed from time to time by the Secretary of the Treasury, and for any false swearing in relation thereto he shall incur the penalties of perjury.
He shall also permit the collector to take a full description of his person, which description the collector shall retain and mark with a number. And if the collector, after hearing the proofs and investigating all the circumstances of the case, shall decide to issue a certificate of return, he shall at such timeCertificate. and place as he may designate, sign and give to the person applying a certificate containing the number of the description last aforesaid, which shall be the sole evidence given to such person of his right to return.
If this last named certificate be transferred, it shall becomeTransfer void. void, and the person to whom it was given shall forfeit his right to return to the United States. The right to return under the said certificate shall be limited to one year: but it may be extendedExtension of period. for an additional period, not to exceed a year, in eases where, by reason of sickness or other cause of disability beyond his control, the holder thereof shall be rendered unable sooner to return, which facts shall be fully reported to and investigated by the consular representative of the United States at the port or place from which such laborer departs for the United States, and certified by such representative of the United States to the satisfaction of the collector of 478FIFTIETH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Ch. 1015. 1888. customs at the port where such Chinese person shall seek to land in the United States, such certificate to be delivered by said representative to the master of the vessel on which he departs for the United No entry without certificate.States. And no Chinese laborer shall be permitted to re-enter the United States without producing to the proper officer of the customs at the port of such entry the return certificate herein required. A Chinese permitted to land only at certain ports.Chinese laborer possessing a certificate under this section shall be admitted to the United States only at the port from which he departed therefrom, and no Chinese person, except Chinese diplomatic or consular officers, and their attendants, shall be permitted to enter the United States except at the ports of San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Boston, New York, New Orleans, Port Townsend, or such other ports as may be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Sec. 8. Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations, etc.That the Secretary of the Treasury shall be, and he hereby is, authorized and empowered to make and prescribe, and from time to time to change and amend such rules and regulations, not in conflict with this act, as he may deem necessary and proper to conveniently secure to such Chinese persons as are provided for in articles second and third of the said treaty between the United States and the Empire of China, the rights therein mentioned, and such as shall also protect the United States against the coming and transit of persons not entitled to the benefit of the provisions of said articles.
And Form of certificate, etc.he is hereby further authorized and empowered to prescribe the form and substance of certificates to be issued to Chinese laborers under and in pursuance of the provisions of said articles, and prescribe the form of the record of such certificate and of the proceedings for issuing the same, and he may require the deposit, as a part of such record, of the photograph of the party to whom any such certificate shall be issued. Sec. 9. Punishment to master of vessel unlawfully bringing Chinamen.That the piaster of any vessel who shall knowingly bring within the United States on such vessel, and land, or attempt to land, or permit to be lauded any Chinese laborer or other Chinese person, in contravention of the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished with a fine of not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, in the discretion of the court, for every Chinese laborer or other Chinese person so brought, and may also be imprisoned for a term of not less than one year, nor more than five years, in the discretion of the court.
Sec. 10. Vessels in distress.That the foregoing section shall not apply to the case of any master whose vessel shall come within the jurisdiction of the United States in distress or under stress of weather, or touching at any port of the United States on its voyage to any foreign port or place. But Chinese laborers or persons on such vessel shall not be permitted to land, except in case of necessity, and must depart with the vessel on leaving port. Sec. 11. Punishment for counterfeiting certificate, etc.That any person who shall knowingly and falsely alter or substitute any name for the name written in any certificate herein required, or forge such certificate, or knowingly utter any forged or fraudulent certificate, or falsely personate any person named in any such certificate, and any person other than the one to whom a certificate was issued who shall falsely present any such certificate, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisoned in a penitentiary for a term of not more that five years.
Sec. 12. Landing passengers.That before any Chinese passengers are landed from any such vessel, the collector’, or his deputy, shall proceed to examine such passengers, comparing the certificates with the list and with the passengers: and no passenger shall be allowed to land in the United States from such vessel in violation of law; and the collector shall in person decide all questions in dispute with regard to the right of any Chinese passenger to enter the United States, and his decision shall FIFTIETH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Chs. 1015, 1018. 1888.479 be subject to review by the Secretary of the Treasury, and not otherwise. Sec. 13. That any Chinese person, or person of Chinese descent,Arrest Chinese unlawfully in the United States. found unlawfully in the United States, or its Territories, may be arrested upon a warrant issued upon a complaint, under oath, filed by any party on behalf of the United States, by any justice, judge, or commissioner of any United States court, returnable before any justice, judge, or commissioner of a United States court, or before any United States court, and when convicted, upon a hearing, and found and adjudged to be one not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States, such person shall be removed from the United States to the country whence he came.
But any such Chinese person convicted before a commissioner of a United States court may, within ten days from such conviction, appeal to the judgeAppeal. of the district court for the district. A certified copy of the judgment shall be the process upon which said removal shall be made, and it may be executed by the marshal of the district, or any officer having authority of a marshal under the provisions of this section. And in all such cases the person who brought or aided in bringingPunishment of person aiding. such person into the United States shall be liable to the Government of the United States for all necessary expenses incurred in such investigation and removal: and all peace officers of the several States and Territories of the United States are hereby invested with the same authority in reference to carrying out the provisions of this act, as a marshal or deputy marshal of the United States, and shall be entitled to like compensation, to be audited and paid by the same officers.
Sec. 14. That the preceding sections shall not apply to ChineseDiplomatic and consular officers. diplomatic or consular officers or their attendants, who shall be admitted to the United States under special instructions of the Treasury Department, without production of other evidence than that of personal identity. Sec. 15. That the act entitled “An act to execute certain treatyPrior acts to be repealed.Vol. 22, p. 58.Vol. 23, p. 115. stipulations relating to Chinese,” approved May sixth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, and an act to amend said act approved July fifth, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, are hereby repealed to take effect upon the ratification of the pending treaty as provided in section one of this act.
Approved, September 13, 1888. Chapter 1018: for the erection of an appraiser’s warehouse in the city of New York, and for other purposes. Chapter 1018 25 Stat. 479 1888-09-14 United States Government Publishing Office text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Digitization Vendor 2026-02-23 50 1 public
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