Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893)

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13 S. Ct. 1016

Supreme Court of the United States

FONG

v.

UNITED STATES et al.

WONG QUAN

v.

SAME.

LEE JOE

v.

SAME.

Nos. 1,345, 1,346, 1,347.

May 15, 1893.

Statement by Mr. Justice GRAY:

These were three writs of habeas corpus, granted by the circuit court of the United States for the southern district of New York, upon petitions of Chinese laborers arrested and held by the marshal of the district for not having certificates of residence, under section 6 of the act of May 5, 1892, c. 60, which is copied in the margin.¹

¹An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States.

Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, that all laws now in force prohibiting and regulating the coming into this country of Chinese persons and persons of Chinese descent are hereby continued in force for a period of ten years from the passage of this act.

Sec. 2. That any Chinese person or person of Chinese descent, when convicted and adjudged under any of said laws to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States, shall be removed from the United States to China, unless he or they shall make it appear to the justice, judge, or commissioner before whom he or they are tried that he or they are subjects or citizens of some other country, in which case he or they shall be removed from the United States to such country: provided, that in any case where such other country, of which such Chinese person shall claim to be a citizen or subject, shall demand any tax as a condition of the removal of such person to that country, he or she shall be removed to China.

Sec. 3. That any Chinese person or person of Chinese descent arrested under the provisions of this act or the acts hereby extended shall be adjudged to be unlawfully within the United States, unless such person shall establish, by affirmative proof, to the satisfaction of such justice, judge, or commissioner, his lawful right to remain in the United States.

Sec. 4. That any such Chinese person or person of Chinese descent convicted and adjudged to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States shall be imprisoned at hard labor for a period of not exceeding one year, and thereafter removed from the United States, as hereinbefore provided.

Sec. 5. That after the passage of this act, on an application to any judge or court of the United States in the first instance for a writ of habeas corpus, by a Chinese person seeking to land in the United States, to whom that privilege has been denied, no bail shall be allowed, and such application shall be heard and determined promptly, without unnecessary delay.

Sec. 6. And it shall be the duty of all Chinese laborers within the limits of the United States at the time of the passage of this act, and who are entitled to remain in the United States, to apply to the collector of internal revenue of their respective districts, within one year after the passage of this act, for a certificate of residence; and any Chinese laborer within the limits of the United States, who shall neglect, fail, or refuse to comply with the provisions of this act, or who, after one year from the passage hereof, shall be found within the jurisdiction of the United States without such certificate of residence, shall be deemed and adjudged to be unlawfully within the United States, and may be arrested by any United States customs official, collector of internal revenue or his deputies, United States marshal or his deputies, and taken before a United States judge, whose duty it shall be to order that he be deported from the United States, as hereinbefore provided, unless he shall establish clearly, to the satisfaction of said judge, that by reason of accident, sickness, or other unavoidable cause he has been unable to procure his certificate, and to the satisfaction of the court, and by at least one credible white witness, that he was a resident of the United States at the time of the passage of this act; and if upon the hearing it shall appear that he is so entitled to a certificate, it shall be granted, upon his paying the cost. Should it appear that said Chinaman had procured a certificate which has been lost or destroyed, he shall be detained, and judgment suspended a reasonable time to enable him to procure a duplicate from the officer granting it; and in such cases the cost of said arrest and trial shall be in the discretion of the court. And any Chinese person other than a Chinese laborer, having a right to be and remain in the United States, desiring such certificate as evidence of such right, may apply for and receive the same without charge.

Sec. 7. That immediately after the passage of this act the secretary of the treasury shall make such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the efficient execution of this act, and shall prescribe the necessary forms and furnish the necessary blanks to enable collectors of internal revenue to issue the certificates required hereby, and make such provisions that certificates may be procured in localities convenient to the applicants. Such certificates shall be issued without charge to the applicant, and shall contain the name, age, local residence, and occupation of the applicant, and such other description of the applicant as shall be prescribed by the secretary of the treasury; and a duplicate thereof shall be filed in the office of the collector of internal revenue for the district within which such Chinaman makes application.

Sec. 8. That any person who shall knowingly and falsely alter or substitute any name for the name written in such certificate, or forge such certificate, or knowingly utter any forged or fraudulent certificate, or falsely personate any person named in such certificate, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisoned in the penitentiary for a term of not more than five years.

Sec. 9. The secretary of the treasury may authorize the payment of such compensation in the nature of fees to the collectors of internal revenue, for services performed under the provisions of this act, in addition to salaries now allowed by law, as he shall deem necessary, not exceeding the sum of one dollar for each certificate issued.

The rules and regulations made and promulgated by the secretary of the treasury under section 7 of that act prescribe forms for applications for certificates of residence, for affidavits in support thereof, and for the certificates themselves; contain the provisions copied in the margin;² and also provide for recording duplicates of the certificates in the office of the collector of internal revenue.

²Collectors of internal revenue will receive applications on the following form, at their own offices, from such Chinese as are conveniently located thereto, and will cause their deputies to proceed to the towns or cities in their respective divisions where any considerable number of Chinese are residing, for the purpose of receiving applications. No application will be received later than May 5, 1893.

Collectors and deputies will give such notice, through leading Chinese, or by notices posted in the Chinese quarter of the various localities, as will be sufficient to apprise all Chinese residing in their districts of their readiness to receive applications, and the time and place where they may be made. All applications received by deputies must be forwarded to the collector’s office, from whose office all certificates of residence will be issued, and sent to the deputy for dolivery.

The affidavit of at least one credible witness of good character to the fact of residence and lawful status within the United States must be furnished with every application. If the applicant is unable to furnish such witness satisfactory to the collector or his deputy, his application will be rejected, unless he shall furnish other proof of his right to remain in the United States, in which case the application, with the proofs presented, shall be forwarded to the commissioner of internal revenue for his decision. The witness must appear before the collector or his deputy, and be fully questioned in regard to his testimony before being sworn.

In all cases of loss or destruction of original certificates of residence, where it can be established to the satisfaction of the collector of the district in which the certificate was issued that such loss or destruction was accidental. and without fault or negligence on the part of the applicant, a duplicate of the original may be issued under the same conditions that governed the original issue.

The first petition alleged that the petitioner was a person of the Chinese race, born in China, and not a naturalized citizen of the United States; that in or before 1879 he came to the United States, with the intention of remaining and taking up his residence therein, and with no definite intention of returning to China, and had ever since been a permanent resident of the United States, and for more than a year last past had resided in the city, county, and state of New York, and within the second district for the collection of internal revenue in that state; that he had not, since the passage of the act of 1892, applied to the collector of internal revenue of that district for a certificate of residence, as required by section 6, and was, and always had been, without such certificate of residence; and that he was arrested by the marshal, claiming authority to do so under that section, without any writ or warrant. The return of the marshal stated that the petitioner was found by him within the jurisdiction of the United States and in the southern district of New York, without the certificate of residence required by that section; that he had, therefore, arrested him, with the purpose and intention of taking him before a United States judge within that district; and that the petitioner admitted to the marshal, in reply to questions put through an interpreter, that he was a Chinese laborer, and was without the required certificate of residence.

The second petition contained similar allegations, and further alleged that the petitioner was taken by the marshal before the district judge for the southern district of New York, and that ‘the said United States judge, without any hearing of any kind, thereupon ordered that your petitioner be remanded to the custody of the marshal in and for the southern district of New York, and deported forthwith from the United States, as is provided in said act of May 5, 1892, all of which more fully appears by said order, a copy of which is hereto annexed and made a part hereof,’ and which is copied in the margin;³ and that he was detained by virtue of the marshal’s claim of authority and the judge’s order. The marshal returned that he held the petitioner under that order.

³In the matter of the arrest and deportation of Wong Quan, a Chinese laborer.

Wong Quan, a Chinese laborer, having been arrested in the city of New York on the 6th day of May, 1893, and brought before me, a United States judge, by John W. Jacobus, the marshal of the United States in and for the southern district of New York, as being a Chinese laborer found within the jurisdiction of the United States after the expiration of one year from the passage of the act of congress approved on the 5th day of May, 1892, and entitled ‘An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States,’ without having the certificate of residence required by said act; and the said Wong Quan having failed to clearly establish to my satisfaction that by reason of accident, sickness, or other unavoidable cause he had been unable to procure the said certificate, or that he had procured such certificate, and that the same had been lost or destroyed: Now, on motion of Edward Mitchell, the United States attorney in and for the southern district of New York, it is ordered that the said Wong Quan be, and he hereby is, remanded to the custody of the said John W. Jacobus, the United States marshal in and for the southern district of New York; and it is further ordered, that the said Wong Quan be deported from the United States of America in accordance with the provisions of said act of congress approved on the 5th day of May, 1892.

Dated New York, May 6, 1893.

Addison Brown,

United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.

In the third case the petition alleged, and the judge’s order showed, the following state of facts: On April 11, 1893, the petitioner applied to the collector of internal revenue for a certificate of residence. The collector refused to give him a certificate, on the ground that the witnesses whom he produced to prove that he was entitled to the certificate were persons of the Chinese race, and not credible witnesses, and required of him to produce a witness other than a Chinaman to prove that he was entitled to the certificate, which he was unable to do, because there was no person other than one of the Chinese race who knew and could truthfully swear that he was lawfully within the United States on May 5, 1892, and then entitled to remain therein; and because of such unavoidable cause he was unable to produce a certificate of residence, and was now without one. The petitioner was arrested by the marshal, and taken before the judge, and clearly established to the satisfaction of the judge that he was unable to procure a certificate of residence by reason of the unavoidable cause aforesaid; and also established to the judge’s satisfaction, by the testimony of a Chinese resident of New York, that the petitioner was a resident of the United States at the time of the passage of the act; but, having failed to establish this fact clearly to the satisfaction of the court by at least one credible white witness, as required by the statute, the judge ordered the petitioner to be remanded to the custody of the marshal, and to be deported from the United States, as provided in the act.

Each petition alleged that the petitioner was arrested and detained without due process of law, and that section 6 of the act of May 5, 1892, was unconstitutional and void.

In each case the circuit court, after a hearing upon the writ of habeas corpus and the return of the marshal, dismissed the writ of habeas corpus, and allowed an appeal of the petitioner to this court, and admitted him to bail pending the appeal. All the proceedings, from the arrest to the appeal, took place on May 6th.