28 N.Y.S. 383 | Albany City Court | 1894
San C. Po, an. alien, petitions that he may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States. It appears that he was born at Bassien, in British Burmah, formerly a part of the Bnrman empire, situated in the southeast of Asia. In color he is dark yellow. He came to this country under the age of eighteen years, to wit, at the age of fifteen. He has resided since that time and for more than five years within the United States, including the three years of his minority, and one year within the State of New York, and he asks to be admitted a citizen without having made the declaration of intention required by law to be made two years at least prior to his admission as a. citizen. The petitioner appears to be a man of education. He was graduated at Colgate Academy and is now studying medicine in the Albany Medical College. It is his intention to reside in and practice his profession in the United States, and to that end he has conformed to its customs, and has made himself acquainted with its laws and Constitution, and if there is no obstacle it would give the court great satisfaction to grant his petition and admit him to citizenship. The power of naturalization is exercised by state courts having common-law jurisdiction and a clerk and a seal by authority of section 2165 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, but “ the power to say when and under what circumstances aliens may become American citizens belongs to congress. Citizenship is a privilege which no one has a
For the reason that petitioner is not an alien being a free white person, nor an alien of African nativity, nor a person of African descent, his petition to become a citizen of the United States is denied.