<p>The current European border regime is characterized by racialized exclusion. I argue that this is the result of a process of internalization of norms whose legal origins can be traced back to the US exclusion era best known for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. After a short introduction, I proceed in four steps. First, I describe the origin of racially motivated exclusion laws targeting Chinese and other Asian immigrants, particularly in the USA. Second, I discuss their legal perpetuation through the concomitant development of the plenary power doctrine in American and British case law. Third, I examine the transfer of the exclusion doctrine per se into contemporary international and European law and its alleged cleansing of racist bias. Fourth, I describe how these historical developments inform current legal and political decisions shaping the European border regime. The aim is to expose more clearly the contradictions between anti-discriminatory norms, such as the ones enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, and openly discriminatory legal and political practices regulating unwanted immigration. Arguably, these practices result from an internalization of racialized exclusion since the Chinese exclusion era.</p>