In the 1860s and 1870s , nativist hostility to the presence of Asian laborers in the continental United States grew and intensified , with the formation of organizations such as the Asiatic Exclusion League . East Asian immigrants , particularly Chinese Americans who composed the majority of the population on the mainland , were seen as the " yellow peril " and suffered violence and discrimination . Lynchings of Chinese were common , and large-scale attacks also occurred , most prominently the Rock Springs massacre in which a mob of white miners killed nearly 30 Chinese immigrants . In 1875 , Congress passed the Page Act , the first restrictive immigration law . This law identified forced laborers from Asia as well as Asian women who would potentially engage in prostitution as " undesirable " persons , who would henceforth be barred from entering the United States . In practice , the law was enforced to institute a near-complete exclusion of Chinese women from the United States , preventing male laborers from bringing their families with or after them
Rock Springs massacre
Rock Springs massacre
Asian immigration to the United States