Angel Island and the Chinese Exclusion Act | Asian Americans

Discover how the mostly Chinese immigrants were detained – sometimes for months – at the Angel Island Immigration Station. After years of anti-Chinese sentiment, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the first in a series of laws explicitly used to limit immigration based on race. When Angel Island Immigration Station opened in 1910, the majority of its detainees were Chinese. Unlike the Ellis Island immigration inspection station in New York City, where the average wait was between three to five hours, the Chinese immigrants’ confinement ranged from two weeks to six months, some waiting as long as two years.