The case made upon this application for mandamus as appears upon the petition and return to the alternative writ is that the Norwegian vessel Norma, lawfully trading to the United States, entered the port of Mobile about a month ago,
The legislation contained in the various statutes that have been passed relating to immigration is clearly directed against the immigration into this country of certain classes of persons who come in with the intent to enter into and become a part of the mass of its citizenship or population. Immigration is defined to be the entering into a country with the intention of residing in it. The earlier stat
I have carefully considered the ruling of the assistant secretary of the treasury in the case of the crew of the Lancashire, which may be justified by the facts in that particular case, as they existed, and as they wore doubtless made known to him. In that case the vessel, which had been partly wrecked on the coast of Jamaica, and partially restored there, tuid had’ changed flags, came to Mobile for docking and more complete repair; then to load out a cargo for foreign lands. She had shipped at K ingstou, besides the ordinary' crew usually required on vessels of her class, a large number of additional men, who desired to come to the United States, and who were engaged at Jamaica to come to Mobile at a wage of one shilling per month each, to work chiefly at pumping the leaking vessel, and to be here discharged, — an absurdly small wage unless the men were working their passage to the United States, as they manifestly were doing. Under such facts as existed in that case, these men, so working their passage at the equivalent of 25 cents for the month, but who were actually paid $5 each for the month’s service (where the ordinary wages were $15 per month), and who stipulated for discharge here in the United States, were plainly immigrants, and properly treated as such, and therefore properly deported under the ruling of the secretary; and this, not because bona tide crews of ships fall under the immigration laws, but because they were not a bona fide crew of the ship. Were the court to adopt all the views contained in the letter of instruction of the secretary, of the treasury referred to in the Lancashire case, it would not: aid the respondent in this case, as it is sufficient to say that the secretary there applied Ms ruling exclusively to discharged seamen, who came into the United States under the circumstances above stated, on the evident theory that, after they were discharged, they became a part of the mass of the people of the country,- and were indistinguishable from any other immigrants. Such is not the case here. I am satisfied that the master of this vessel has committed no offense against the immigration laws, and is entitled to his clearance without paying any fine imposed by snch laws.
I am not unmindful of the provision of the act of August 18, 1894, that “in every case where an alien is excluded from admission into the United States under any law or treaty now existing or hereafter made, decision of the appropriate immigration or customs officers, if adverse to the admission of such alien, shall be final unless reversed on appeal to the secretary of the treasury” (2 Supp. Rev. St. U. S. p. 253), and of the rulings made thereon. Lem Moon Sing v. U. S,, 158 U. S. 538, 15 Sup. Ct. 967, 39 L. Ed. 10S2; Wong Wing v. U. S., 163 U. S. 228, 16 Sup. Ct. 977, 41 L. Ed. 140; In re Moses (C. C.) 83 Fed. 995, and other cases. Under these decisions the status of any alien, and the question of his right to enter the United States, is ex-