In re Ho Tim

4 D. Haw. 653
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedJanuary 15, 1916
StatusPublished

This text of 4 D. Haw. 653 (In re Ho Tim) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Ho Tim, 4 D. Haw. 653 (D. Haw. 1916).

Opinion

Clemons, J.

[1] In deciding this case, as the court does, adversely to the petitioner, little more might be said than to remind counsel of the fact that when an alien of the Chinese race seeks to enter the country, or, as here, is lawfully arrested (see United States v. Hom Lim, 214 Fed. 456, par. 1, 460, also 461-462) under the provisions of the Chinese immigration laws, the burden is upon him of showing that his status is such or his qualifications are such, as to entitle him either, as the case may be, to land or to remain in the country. And although in this case of deportation of a person already in the country, the record shows some evidence of a purely hearsay character, evidence not competent, still that fact did not relieve the petitioner of the burden, above stated, which was upon her to show; (1) that she had not been found within the country in violation of section 6 of the Chinese exclusion [654]*654act of May 5, 1892, as amended, being a Chinese laborer not in possession of a certificate of residence; (2) that she had not been found within the country in violation of rule 9, Chinese rules, having secured admission by fraud, and not having been at the time the lawful wife of a member of the exempt classes; and (3) that she had not entered the United States unlawfully as the wife of a domiciled Chinese merchant for the purpose of laboring in the United States and not conducting herself therein as the wife of such merchant — all in order to meet the first three charges made in the warrant of arrest of August 19, 1915, Transcript of Record, pages 59-60, and based upon “facts making the arrest presumptively lawful.” See United States v. Hom Lim, supra. There might be, as counsel contends, some ground for a distinction, as to burden of proof, between a case of an alien not yet landed and one of an alien landed and then charged with being deportable, but the following provision of statute, 27 Stat. 25, sec. 3, May 5, 1892, nullifies any such distinction:

“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 in 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.”

See Chin Bak Kan v. United States, 186 U. S. 193, 200; United States v. Hom Lim, ubi sup.; Yee Ging v. United States, 190 Fed. 270, 271-273, the decision in the latter case making, at page 272, this pertinent criticism of a contra decision of Judge Grosscup in Moy Suey v. United States, 147 Fed. 697:

“He appears to proceed upon the assumption that a different rule of evidence should be applied to a Chinese person 'physically and politically' in the country from that applicable to such a person who is stopped at the border line and refused admission. . . . The statute makes no such distinction, nor is it to be found, so far as the Court [655]*655is advised, in any ease decided by the Supreme Court.”

Also the suggestive language of Judge Chatfield in United States v. Hom Lim, supra, may be referred to:

“It must be observed that no Chinese person or person of Chinese descent may be arrested, even upon a warrant, unless based upon circumstances showing him to be unlawfully within the United States. Section 13, Acts of' 1888. [For such showing before the above warrant of arrest, which was the second warrant, see Transcript, pages 1-58, and for such showing before the first warrant of arrest, of March 30, 1915, see Id., pages 1-18.] A person who has been lawfully 'arrested' shall be adjudged to be unlawfully within the United States unless he furnishes affirmative proof of his right to remain. It would render the law unconstitutional if it should be held to allow the arrest and deportation of a person, even where a warrant had been issued, unless the record showed some proof, at least in the way of allegations of fact, that the person arrested was a Chinese person or person of Chinese descent, and that this person was 'unlawfully’ in the country and had been arrested because of some state of facts prohibited by and within the language of the law.” (At page 460.)
“Unless the record shows that an order of arrest could lawfully be made, [and it does so show] then the entire case must fall for lack of right to deport. A person cannot be physically 'arrested’ without some basis of fact showing unlawful presence, and then be forced into the position of proving his right to remain, when the 'arrest’ is not based upon any facts making the arrest presumptively lawful.” [But it is so based here.] (At pages 461-462.)

The cases embraced within the Horn Liui decision, supra, are distinguished from the case here by the fact of their want of anything making the warrant of arrest “presumptively lawful”. 214 Fed. 461-462.

The language of Mr. Justice Holmes as quoted in Looe Shee v. North, 170 Fed. 571 (and see Id., 566, syllabus, par. 2) may suggest that, apart from statute, the burden of showing an alien’s status <?f qualifications to be such as to [656]*656entitle him to land may be regarded as continuing to rest upon hiin even after his permitted entry in case question arises as to his being lawfully in the country under the Immigration Act (the general statute as distinguished from the more strict statutes applying to the Chinese); although it is to be noted that the statute in force and considered by the justice was one creating a three-year term of probation which has since been extended to make such term unlimited in cases involving sexual immorality, 36 Stat. 825-826, —an extension which does not seem, however, to change the principle applied by Mr. Justice Holmes. And see sections 20 and 21 of the Immigration Act as to the three-year limit, still maintained in other cases.

The fact that the Assistant Secretary of Labor was justified, as I am convinced that he was, in finding a failure of the evidence to establish what was claimed for the alien here, is sufficient, then, to determine the case against her.

And so it would not be necessary to regard the additional grounds of the second warrant of arrest, as founded on the general, as distinguished from the Chinese, immigration laws. They are (4) that the petitioner has been found in the United States in violation of 34 Stat. 898, act of Feb. 20, 1907, as amended, in that she has been convicted of or admits having committed a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude prior to her entry into the United States, and (5) that shei has been found in the United States in violation of that statute in that she entered without the inspection by it contemplated and required, having secured admission by means of false and misleading statements (sections 20 and all sections requiring aliens to be inspected). But even the burden of proof as to these last two grounds, which is upon the government (see Bouve, Exclusion of Aliens, 533, 560), has in my opinion been sustained. At all events, under the evidence direct and circumstantial, taken in hearings which were fair, it would not be within the province of this court to [657]*657say otherwise. See Id., 523, 546, and 623, citing Chin Yow v. United States,

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Related

Chin Bak Kan v. United States
186 U.S. 193 (Supreme Court, 1902)
Chin Yow v. United States
208 U.S. 8 (Supreme Court, 1908)
Moy Suey v. United States
147 F. 697 (Seventh Circuit, 1906)
Looe Shee v. North
170 F. 566 (Ninth Circuit, 1909)
Yee Ging v. United States
190 F. 270 (W.D. Texas, 1911)
United States v. Hom Lim
214 F. 456 (E.D. New York, 1914)
In re Tam Chung
223 F. 801 (D. Montana, 1915)

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Bluebook (online)
4 D. Haw. 653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ho-tim-hid-1916.