The Alien Land Law ( 1913 ) - 893 Words

The Alien Land Law (1913), alternatively known as the California Alien Land Law and the Webb-Haney Bill, was legislation passed by Governor Hiram Johnson (1866-1945, Gov. 1911-1917) which directed that Foreign Aliens and immigrants were ineligible for citizenship and by extension restricted from leasing and owning land. While not explicitly discriminatory towards a particular group, the intention and focus of the law was directed at Chinese and Japanese immigrants in the United States who faced increasingly anti-Asian sentiment in most western American states. While ultimately Japanese-American persons utilized a range of legal means to circumvent the land lease and ownership stipulations in the Alien Land Law of 1913, subsequent state legislation was eventually enacted to further restrict the rights of Asian immigrants. Reflective of anti-immigrant and anti-Asian public sentiment expressed in discriminatory state laws of the period and indicative of the general treatment of Japanes e-Americans throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Though the California Alien Land Law was eventually found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court (1948, 1952), it nonetheless had a lasting impact upon Japanese-American s in limiting the economic and social opportunities available to them in the United States. California s Alien Land Law, passed on May 19 1913 legislated that aliens, for foreign citizens and immigrants were ineligible for citizenship. By extension,Show MoreRelatedNative Immigrants And The United States957 Words   |  4 Pagesboost. On the other hand the Japanese where treated unfairly and restricted by 1913 Alien Land Act. â€Å"Opposition to Japanese immigration led to Alien Land Laws that barred Japanese immigrants from buying or leasing farmland. Although there is general agreement that the 1913 California Alien Land Law†( SUZUKI Pg125). There was really so much tension the government was trying to so much to force the Japanese out. In this law that was passed though there was loopholes which later on where brought to anRead MoreThe Japanese American Citizens League965 Words   |  4 Pagesrising anti-immigrant public sentiment of the period. Thus increasingly experiencing the racism of the American public as well as the institutionalized segregation legislated in bills such as the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), Alien Land Laws (California Alien Land Law 1913), and Immigration Act (1924) the Japanese-American community sought to organize as a means to assert their national loyalty and defend their rights as citizens in the political and legal forums of states such as California, OregonRead MoreEssay on Concentration Camps for Japanese Americans752 Words   |  4 Pagesplayed with friends. The life for the Japanese has never been easy. In the year of 1913, California passed a law known as the Alien Land Law which banned â€Å"aliens could not receive citizenship† from owning a property but it allo wed 3 year leases. These â€Å"aliens† were a reference to the Japanese and all Asian immigrants. In 1920, the extended the law and made it so they couldn’t even lease land. 5 years later this law passed in 12 more states. In 1922, the court case Ozawa vs. U.S. had the Supreme CourtRead MoreStrawberry Fields by Miriam Wells1172 Words   |  5 Pageshow things are structured in the fields in order to make a profit based on capitalism. 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