Polygamy, Prostitution, and the Federalization of Immigration Law

• Published in: Columbia law review Vol. 105; no. 3; pp. 641 - 716
• Main Author: Abrams, Kerry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Columbia University School of Law 01.04.2005
• Subjects: Chinese; Federal law; Federal states; Forced prostitution; Immigration law; Legal status; Legislation; Marginalized people; Marriage law; Polygamy; Porters; Prostitution; Sex workers; Social control; Statutory law; U.S.A; Wives
• ISSN: 0010-1958; 1945-2268

When Congress banned the immigration of Chinese prostitutes with the Page Law of 1875, it was the first restrictive federal immigration statute. Yet most scholarship treats the passage of the Page Law as a relatively unimportant event, viewing the later Chinese Exclusion Act as the crucial landmark in the federalization of immigration law. This Article argues that the Page Law was not a minor statute targeting a narrow class of criminals, but rather an attempt to prevent Chinese women in general from immigrating to the United States. Most Chinese women migrating to the United States in the early 1870s were prostitutes or second wives in polygamous marriages. Congress feared the unorthodox Chinese practices of polygamy and prostitution, believing that these customs were reflective of an underlying slave-like mentality that rendered the Chinese unfit for democratic self-governance. By identifying and excluding Chinese women as prostitutes, the law prevented the birth of Chinese American children and stunted the growth of Chinese American communities. The Page Law was an important statute not only because of its goals, but also because of its method. America's international trade objectives and treaty obligations made outright restrictions on Chinese immigration untenable in 1875. By targeting marginal immigrants-women, and prostitutes at that-Congress was able to restrict Chinese immigration while maintaining a veneer of inclusiveness. Thus, in passing the first restrictive federal immigration law, Congress managed to exclude a group of people by defining them as outside the boundaries of legal marriage.