President Chester Arthur signed the act on May 6, 1882. It suspended immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years and barred Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens. Anti-Chinese politicians and labor groups in the West blamed Chinese workers for low wages. The earlier Page Act of 1875 had already restricted Chinese women from entering.
The Geary Act of 1892 extended the ban and required Chinese residents to carry certificates, and in 1902 Congress extended exclusion with no end date. Mob violence accompanied the laws, including the 1885 massacre of Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that children born in the US to Chinese parents were citizens.
Congress repealed the act in 1943, when China was a World War II ally, but allowed only 105 Chinese immigrants per year. Congress formally expressed regret for the law in 2011 and 2012. Historians see it as the start of federal immigration control and the idea of the "illegal" immigrant.