How did the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act impact Chinese immigrants in the 1880s?

The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first/only legislation suspending immigration for a particular nationality; prohibiting Chinese workers from entering the United States of America, and also prevented Chinese workers from returning to the country if they had left.

A lot of years of xenophobia and racial antipathy by white Americans preceded restrictions against other nationalities as well.

The law notably decreased the number of Chinese immigrants, and put them under a massive government scrutiny, it also separated families, and their business were closed down.