With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese laborers became the
first group in American history to be excluded from the United
States on the basis of their race and class. This landmark law
changed the course of U.S. immigration history, but we know little
about its consequences for the Chinese in America or for the United
States as a nation of immigrants.
At America's Gates is the first book devoted entirely to
both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who
sought to keep them out. Erika Lee explores how Chinese exclusion
laws not only transformed Chinese American lives, immigration
patterns, identities, and families but also recast the United
States into a "gatekeeping nation." Immigrant identification,
border enforcement, surveillance, and deportation policies were
extended far beyond any controls that had existed in the United
States before.
Drawing on a rich trove of historical sources--including recently
released immigration records, oral histories, interviews, and
letters--Lee brings alive the forgotten journeys, secrets,
hardships, and triumphs of Chinese immigrants. Her timely book
exposes the legacy of Chinese exclusion in current American
immigration control and race relations.