227 F. 247 | D. Maryland | 1915
The petitioner is about to- be deported under a-warrant issued by the Secretary of Labor. He seeks his release-by habeas corpus. He says he is about 19 years old. He looks younger. According to his story, he is the son of one Wong Que Teung, alias Wong Kus, a merchant long domiciled in Oakland, Cal. As such son the petitioner, on the 7th of November, 1913, was admitted by the immigrant officials at the port of San Francisco-. A little over a year later he was found living with a Chines.e laundryman in Baltimore. The immigration office secured some evidence which led it to think that he was employed as a laborer.
On the 22d of January, 1915, the Assistant Secretary of Labor issued a warrant for his arrest on various grounds, which may be summarized as that he was a Chinese laborer, without certificate of residence; that he procured his admission to this country by fraud, not' being at the time of entry a minor son of a member of the exempt classes; and that at such time he was under 16, and was not accompanied by at least one of his parents. The petitioner was given a full and.even elaborate hearing, at which he was represented by counsel. The entire record of the proceedings which led to his admission at San Francisco was put in evidence. The government called witnesses, and. so did he,- all of Whom were examined and cross-examined. It ap
Ail that was,really new in the case made in Baltimore is that, very shortly after the boy arrived in California, the alleged father sent him clear across the continent to a laundryman here. The latter’s relationship, if any, to either the father or the son, is, by petitioner’s witnesses, variously and vaguely stated. The statements of the man in question are of such a character as to lead the immigrant officials to conclude that he is unworthy of belief. No letters have passed between the alleged father and the petitioner, and the former does not claim to have sent for the latter’s support during an entire year more than $60. At the conclusion of the hearing, the local immigration authorities decided that he should be deported. He took an appeal to the Secretary of Labor, with whom his counsel filed elaborate briefs. On the 3d of July of this year the Secretary issued his warrant of deportation, in which the grounds specified were substantially the same as those in the warrant of arrest, except that the Secretary held that the weight of evidence showed that the petitioner, at the time of his admission, was over 16 years of age.
But the mere fact that the alien, before, at, or after his arrest, was interrogated without counsel being present, does not show that his hearing was not fair. On this point the decision of the Supreme Court in Low Wah Suey v. Backus, 225 U. S. 460, 32 Sup. Ct. 734, 56 L. Ed. 1165, is conclusive. To the same effect are In re Madeiros (D. C.) 225 Fed. 90; United States v. Moy Toom (D. C.) 224 Fed. 520; United States v. Lem You (D. C.) 224 Fed. 519; United States ex rel. Buccino v. Williams (C. C.) 190 Fed. 897; United States ex rel. Ivanow v. Greenawalt (D. C.) 213 Fed. 901; Sire v. Berkshire (D. C.) 185 Fed. 967; Siniscalchi v. Thomas, 195 Fed. 701, 115 C. C. A. 501; United States v. Hung Chang, 134 Fed. 19, 67 C. C. A. 93; Prentis v. Seu Leung, 203 Fed. 25, 121 C. C. A. 389.
But the distinction between á judicial determination and the administrative acts of executive officials in admitting aliens to the country is wide and has often been drawn. Pearson v. Williams, 202 U. S. 281, 26 Sup. Ct. 608, 50 L. Ed. 1029; United States ex rel. Tremaine v. Commissioner of Immigration (D. C.) 209 Fed. 137; Ex parte Stancampiano (C. C.) 161 Fed. 164; New Quen Wo v. United States, 184 Fed. 685, 106 C. C. A. 639; Haw Moy v. North, 183 Fed. 89, 105 C. C. A. 381; Lim Jew v. United States, 196 Fed. 736, 116 C. C. A. 364; United States v. Chun Hoy, 111 Fed. 899, 50 C. C. A. 57. In Pearson v. Williams, supra, the same board of special inquiry which admitted the immigrant a month later ordered his deportation. Nor is such act of admission equivalent to a certificate of status or residence, issued in accordance with .the provisions of some treaty or statute. Such a certificate imports at least prima facie verity. It cannot be treaded as if it had never existed. Some evidence must be produced to justify the immigrant officials denying to it its usual and appropriate effect. Liu Hop Fong v. United States, 209 U. S. 453, 28 Sup. Ct. 576, 52 L. Ed. 888.
My attention has not been called to any cases in which such weight has been given to the mere admission of an alien into this country. In none of the cases above cited, in which the couclusiveness of such admission was denied, did the courts intimate that it was in itself an evidentiary fact sufficient to protect the alien against subsequent deportation, upon the same evidence which had once been held sufficient to require his admission. Some of the intimations to be found in them and some of their reasoning would seem to point to the opposite conclusion; but in no reported case, so far as I am aware, had the very question upon which this case must turn been directly presented and passed upon.
The petitioner says, however, that the charge in this case is that he secured his admission by fraud, and that upon that issue the government must sustain the burden of proof. Be it so. Nevertheless, if the petitioner is not the son of the Oakland merchant, the charge is true. As already stated, there is, upon the .whole evidence, abundant reason to doubt whether he is, and whether he is or is not is an issue to be passed upon by the immigrant officials, and not by the courts. The latter can intérf ere only when there is a total failure of all evidence upon which a .fair-minded man would feel justified in acting. I certainly cannot find that there is any such lack here. If the question were one upon which it was my duty to pass, I am not prepared to say that I would not reach the same conclusion as that upon which the Secretary of Labor has acted.
It follows that the writ of habeas corpus must be dismissed, and the petitioner remanded to the custody of the immigration officials for deportation under the Secretary’s warrant.
<&wkey; For other eases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes
<&wkey; For other cases see same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes-