The Immigration Act of 1891, also known as the 1891 Immigration Act, was a modification of the
Immigration Act of 1882
The Immigration Act of 1882 was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on August 3, 1882. It imposed a head tax on non-citizens of the United States who came to American ports and restricted certain classes of people f ...
, focusing on immigration rules and enforcement mechanisms for foreigners arriving from countries other than
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. It was the second major federal legislation related to the mechanisms and authority of immigration enforcement, the first being the Immigration Act of 1882 (there were other, more minor pieces of legislation passed in the 1880s). The law was passed on March 3, 1891, at the end of the term of the
51st United States Congress
The 51st United States Congress, referred to by some critics as the Billion Dollar Congress, was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Rep ...
, and signed into law by then United States President
Benjamin Harrison.
Historical context
Immigration Act of 1882
The
Immigration Act of 1882
The Immigration Act of 1882 was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on August 3, 1882. It imposed a head tax on non-citizens of the United States who came to American ports and restricted certain classes of people f ...
was the first major federal legislation describing a framework for regulation of immigration. The Act allowed for head taxes on certain arriving migrants, and allowed the use of this to fund a federal immigration bureaucracy.
[
]
Other acts
Between 1882 and 1891, some other acts governing immigration were passed. The key ones are below:[
* ]Alien Contract Labor Law The 1885 Alien Contract Labor Law (Sess. II Chap. 164; 23 Stat. 332), also known as the Foran Act, was an act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its ...
, passed February 26, 1885, made it unlawful to import aliens into the United States under contract for the performance of labor or services of any kind. It was amended in February 1887 to make it enforceable by the Secretary of the Treasury.
* Payson Act of 1887 restricted the ownership of real estate in the United States to American citizens and those who have lawfully declared their intentions to become citizens, with certain specific exceptions.
* Act of October 19, 1888 stated that any immigrant who had landed in violation of the Alien Contract Labor Law could be expelled within one year of arrival (this would be reiterated in the Immigration Act of 1891, with additional details).
Related legislation on Chinese exclusion
A parallel set of legislative, executive, and judicial changes was unfolding in the domain of Chinese exclusion. The key pieces of legislation were:
* The Page Act of 1875
The Page Act of 1875 (Sect. 141, 18 Stat. 477, 3 March 1875) was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders. Seven years later, the ...
, that banned forced laborers and women suspected of prostitution from Asia
* Angell Treaty of 1880
The Angell Treaty of 1880 (), formally known as the Treaty Regulating Immigration from China, was a modification of the 1868 Burlingame Treaty between the United States and China, passed in Beijing, China, on November 17, 1880.
Historical conte ...
placed a moratorium on migration from China, amending the Burlingame Treaty
* Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplom ...
(1882), banning for ten years the migration of Chinese skilled and unskilled laborers.
* Scott Act (1888)
The Scott Act was a United States law that prohibited U.S. resident Chinese laborers from returning to the United States. Its main author was William Lawrence Scott of Pennsylvania, and it was signed into law by U.S. President Grover Cleveland on O ...
, amending the Chinese Exclusion Act to also ban the re-entry of Chinese laborers who had already been living in the United States.
* Geary Act (1892), extending the Chinese Exclusion Act for another ten years, and also requiring certificates of residence from existing Chinese to prove that they had entered lawfully (i.e., prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act). Those without certificates of residence could be deported.
Provisions
Additional classes of excludable aliens
Section 1 of the 1891 Act relisted categories of excludable aliens, adding some new categories.[ The new types of excludable aliens included persons likely to become public charges, persons suffering from certain contagious disease, felons, persons convicted of other crimes or misdemeanors, polygamists, aliens assisted by others by payment of passage.][
]
New border procedures and extended authority to land borders
The Act specified that the officers in charge of any vessel arriving by sea had to submit a list of passengers with their biographical information to the immigration inspectors at the port. Requirements of this sort had been part of United States federal law since the requirement for a manifest of immigrants in Section 4 of the Steerage Act of 1819
The Steerage Act of 1819, also called the Manifest of Immigrants Act, was an Act passed by the United States federal government on March 2, 1819, effective January 1, 1820. Its full name is An Act regulating passenger ships and vessels. It was the ...
. However, in this case the list needed to be submitted immediately upon arrival and was used to inspect aliens prior to admitting them. The inspectors at ports of entry had the authority to conduct a medical examination of aliens suspected of being unfit or having dangerous diseases, marking the beginning of medical exclusion of immigrants in the United States. Aliens who were detained for a medical examination were still considered to not have formally entered the United States.[
Whereas the Immigration Act of 1882 had only regulated the coastal borders of the United States, the Immigration Act of 1891 extended this authority to land borders with ]Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. It directed the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe rules for the enforcement along land borders that would balance the interests of immigration law enforcement with the goal to not obstruct or unnecessarily delay, impede, or annoy passengers in ordinary travel between the countries.[
]
New bureaucratic office to coordinate immigration enforcement
Section 7 of the 1891 Act created the Office of Superintendent of Immigration. The new executive or bureaucratic office would comprise three clerks and a superintendent appointed by the president, who all worked under the jurisdiction of the secretary of the treasury.[ The Superintendent oversaw a new corps of U.S. immigrant inspectors at the country's principal ports of entry.]
Authority to deport
An Act of October 19, 1888 had established the authority to remove migrants who should not have been allowed to enter for up to one year after their arrival.[ The Immigration Act of 1891 reiterated the authority to remove aliens. The following two provisions were relevant:][
* Section 10 specified that an alien may be required to depart by the same vessel used for arrival, and the captain or master of the ship was required to cooperate, with a minimum fine of $300 for non-cooperation and no permission for departure if a ship had unpaid fines.
* Section 11 allowed for the deportation of any aliens who had arrived in violation of the laws (i.e., if the alien was in one of the excludable categories) at the expense of whoever facilitated the alien's entry.
]
Penalties and restrictions on abetting migration
In addition to Sections 10 and 11, that pushed the financial responsibility for deporting an alien onto the vessel or persons who had brought the alien in, other provisions aimed to penalize the abetting of migration. Sections 3 and 4 forbade advertising journeys to migrants as a way of getting jobs, updating the Alien Contract Labor Law The 1885 Alien Contract Labor Law (Sess. II Chap. 164; 23 Stat. 332), also known as the Foran Act, was an act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its ...
. Section 5 exempted ministers, professors, and others in skilled professions, as well as relatives of United States citizens, from the provisions of Sections 3 and 4.[
]
Subsequent events
Court challenges
The first challenge to the Act was '' Nishimura Ekiu v. United States''. Nishimura Ekiu, a female citizen of Japan, arrived at the United States from Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
on May 7, 1891, and was denied entry under the Immigration Act of 1891. She sued for ''habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'', and challenged the constitutionality of some provisions of the Immigration Act of 1891. The case was decided against Ekiu and in favor of the United States.
A later case, ''Yamataya v. Fisher
''Yamataya v. Fisher'', 189 U.S. 86 (1903), popularly known as the Japanese Immigrant Case, is a Supreme Court of the United States case about the federal government's power to exclude and deport certain classes of alien immigrants under the Immig ...
'' (also known as the Japanese Immigrant Case) challenged the constitutionality of the provisions to exclude and deport immigrants, arguing that these provisions violated the due process clause
In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...
of the United States Constitution. This was the first time the Supreme Court allowed judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
of a procedural due process claim. The case was decided against the Japanese petitioner Yamataya, and found Yamataya to be deportable.
Opening of Ellis Island
Ellis Island, an immigrant inspection station in Upper New York Bay (near New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) on the East Coast of the United States opened on January 2, 1892, shortly after the passage of the Immigration Act of 1891. It would be the busiest immigration inspection. Immigrant inspection at Ellis Island was carried out as per the specifications of the Immigration Act of 1891.[ The medical examination to determine medical excludability (as described in Section 1 of the Act) and detention of migrants with medical conditions were carried out at the ]Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
The Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital (also known as USPHS Hospital No. 43) was a United States Public Health Service hospital on Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, that operated from 1902 to 1951. The hospital is part of the Statue of Liberty Nati ...
located in the south side of the island.
Changes to structure of immigration bureaucracy
A congressional act of March 2, 1895 renamed the Office of Immigration as the Bureau of Immigration and changed the title of superintendent of immigration to commissioner-general of immigration.[
An Act of February 14, 1903 transferred the Bureau of Immigration from the Treasury Department to the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor. An "immigrant fund" created from collection of immigrants' head tax financed the Immigration Service until 1909, when Congress replaced the fund with an annual appropriation.][
]
See also
* '' Nishimura Ekiu v. United States'': Supreme Court reviewing the act
* ''Yamataya v. Fisher
''Yamataya v. Fisher'', 189 U.S. 86 (1903), popularly known as the Japanese Immigrant Case, is a Supreme Court of the United States case about the federal government's power to exclude and deport certain classes of alien immigrants under the Immig ...
'': Supreme Court reviewing the act
* Immigration Act of 1882
The Immigration Act of 1882 was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on August 3, 1882. It imposed a head tax on non-citizens of the United States who came to American ports and restricted certain classes of people f ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Immigration Act of 1882
1891 in American law
United States federal immigration and nationality legislation