The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), to date the only non-wartime federal law, which excluded a people based on nationality, was a reaction to rising anti-Chinese sentiment.

This resentment was largely a result of the willingness of the Chinese to work for far less money under far worse conditions than the white laborers and their unwillingness to "assimilate properly". The law forbade naturalization by any Chinese already in the United States; bared the immigration of any Chinese not given a special work permit deeming him merchant, student, or diplomat; and, most horribly, prohibited the immigration of the wives and children of Chinese laborers from living in the United States.

The Exclusion Act grew more and more restrictive over the following decades, and was finally lifted during World War II, only when such a racist law against a wartime ally became an untenable option.