The Webb-Haney Act, also known as the Alien Land Law, was a California statute passed in 1913. It stripped "all aliens ineligible for citizenship" (which included all Asians except Filipinos, who were subjects of U.S.) of the right to own land in California. It also limited the leasing of land by said aliens to three years. Many Japanese immigrants, or Issei, circumvented this law by transferring the title of their land to their American-born children, or Nisei, who were citizens.