Staff View
Letter, stamped and signed, by the Consular Officer of the United States of America.

Descriptive

Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
Subject
Name (authority = LC-NAF)
NamePart (type = personal)
Chin, Ming
Note (type = source note)
Ng King (Box 244, Case 45, 103) and Chin Ming (Box 392, Case 129, 96); Chinese exclusion acts case files, 1880-1960; Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives and Records Administration – Northeast Region (New York).
Extension
DescriptiveEvent
Type
Digital exhibition
Label
Chinese Exclusion in New Jersey: Immigration Law in the Past and Present
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (point = start); (qualifier = exact)
2012
AssociatedEntity
Role
Curator
Name
Urban, Andy
AssociatedEntity
Role
Curator
Name
Cheruvu, Sivaram
AssociatedEntity
Role
Curator
Name
FrancoMartin, Rebecca
AssociatedEntity
Role
Curator
Name
Jones, Andrew
AssociatedEntity
Role
Curator
Name
Malchow, Mark
AssociatedObject
Type
Exhibition section
Relationship
Forms part of
Name
Chin Ming and Ng King
Detail
Chinese immigrants Ng King and Chin Ming resided in the United States under vastly different circumstances. Ng was working as a merchant in Newark, New Jersey with the firm Kwong Yick & Lung, when Customs officers in New York City received a letter from a man who identified himself as “Chinaman Charley Sung” and from a man allegedly named Henry Fong. Sung and Fong accused Ng of importing illegal Chinese immigrants into the United States from Mexico and harboring them in his store. Sung also accused Ng of smuggling opium into the country. Custom officials forwarded the letter to immigration officials. Chin, also of merchant class, legally entered the United States in January 15, 1921 after obtaining a Certificate of Chinese Subject Exemption Class from Mayoro, Trinidad. This version of the Section Six certificate, issued from Ming’s prior place of residence, provided proof of his merchant status and sound financial standing, allowing him entrance. Chin was quickly approved for entry following his arrival at Ellis Island and issued Certificate of Identity #34429.

The importation of Chinese laborers from foreign countries such as Mexico was illegal and had emerged a means of circumventing restrictions on Chinese immigrants who could no longer enter the United States directly from China. Sung and Fong were undoubtedly aware of this when they reported Ng to officials. It is unclear whether the informants wished to eliminate vice in the Chinese community or if they were involved in illegal activities as well and simply wished to get rid of the competition. (It is unclear if their names were even Charley Sung and Henry Fong, as they claimed.) Chin, on the other hand, had all his documentation and was regarded as an upstanding immigrant. On July 1, 1927, Chin decided to visit his aging parents in China and utilized his legal documents to obtain return status to the United States following the visit. The immigration office recognized Chin’s Certificate of Identity No. 34429, his Section 6 Certificate issued in Trinidad, his New York file number 25/475-S, and the completed Form 432 for return status. Upon examination the U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration Service granted Ming “favorable consideration” to embark on his visit to China.

During Chinese Exclusion, the surreptitious smuggling of Chinese immigrants into the United States became commonplace. The Chinese Exclusion Act did not cause the demand for Chinese labor to dwindle. Smuggling occurred on both the US-Mexican border and the US-Canadian border, as businesses continued to hire Chinese immigrants. For example, labor contractors with ties to Chinese merchants played an active role in orchestrating the smuggling of Chinese migrant labor across the Puget Sound to work in American sawmills. A comparison can be drawn with the employment of undocumented migrants in the United States today. Businesses such as Howard Industries, an electrical products manufacturing firm in Mississippi, have allegedly facilitated the transfer of undocumented migrants from Mexico and instructed migrants on how to obtain false documentation. Despite government regulation during Chinese exclusion and in the present-day, there continues to be a considerable effort on the part of businesses in the smuggling undocumented migrants across the border to obtain a low-wage migrant labor force.
AssociatedObject
Type
Exhibition caption
Relationship
Forms part of
Name
Letter, stamped and signed, by the Consular Officer of the United States of America.
Detail
This document, and the attached image, was used to identify and allow Chin Ming to re-enter the United States. There were quite a few loops that a Chinese immigrant had to jump through in order to enter the United States whether it was initially or as a return entry, and documents such as this one were of the utmost importance to ensure that one could enter the United States.
AssociatedObject
Type
Press kit
Relationship
Forms part of
Name
46
TypeOfResource
StillImage
TitleInfo
Title
Letter, stamped and signed, by the Consular Officer of the United States of America.
OriginInfo
DateIssued (encoding = w3cdtf); (keyDate = yes); (qualifier = exact)
1920-11-12
Subject (authority = local)
Topic
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Subject (authority = LCSH)
Topic
Chinese Americans
Subject (authority = LCSH)
Topic
Immigrants
Subject
HierarchicalGeographic
Country
UNITED STATES
State
New Jersey
Genre (authority = AAT)
official documents
Subject (authority = lcsh/lcnaf)
Geographic
United States--Emigration and immigration
PhysicalDescription
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
image/x-djvu
InternetMediaType
image/jpeg
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Chin
NamePart (type = given)
Ming
Role
RoleTerm (authority = marcrelator); (type = text)
Associated name
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore00000002171.Document.000065208
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Chinese Exclusion in New Jersey: Immigration Law in the Past and Present
Identifier (type = local)
rucore00000002171
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T31835F6
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (AUTHORITY = RU_Archives); (ID = RU_Archives_v2)
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs use of this work. You may make use of this resource, with proper attribution, in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
Copyright
Status
Public domain
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
US federal document
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Source

SourceTechnical
SourceType
Text or graphic (paper)
Extent (Unit = page(s))
1
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Technical

ContentModel
Document
MimeType (TYPE = file)
image/tiff
MimeType (TYPE = container)
application/x-tar
FileSize (UNIT = bytes)
12472320
Checksum (METHOD = SHA1)
810c07673912b5ccbbc51813e4e91894bb1b5429
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