In re Ocampo

4 D. Haw. 770
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedDecember 30, 1916
StatusPublished

This text of 4 D. Haw. 770 (In re Ocampo) 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 Ocampo, 4 D. Haw. 770 (D. Haw. 1916).

Opinion

Vaughan, J.

Alfred-Flores Ocampo’, a- Filipino, • born' January 27, 1888, in- the Philippine Islands, where he had lived prior to coming to Honolulu on November 14, 1907, seeks to be admitted to citizenship-under section 30 of the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906. ■ •

Is he eligible? Does the law authorize that he be admitted to citizenship? “ He may be admitted unless sec[771]*771tion 2169 of the Revised Statutes of 1878 applies in, his case and forbids.

The decision of the question is not free from embarrassment. This court has held in the case of Marcos Solis, in an opinion rendered by Judge Clemons, for whose opinions the writer has great respect, “that under section 30 of the Act of June 29th, 1906, a Filipino, a native and citizen of the Philippine Islands, is eligible to citizenship in spite of the provision of Rev. Stat. sec. 2169, limiting naturalization to aliens who are free white persons or of African nativity or descent.

The opinion of Attorney General Bonaparte, given July 10th, 1908, and the opinion of Justice. Gould, of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, in the Lopez case, are cited to support the decision of the court; and they certainly do sustain it as far as the authority of the precedent can. On the" other hand directly the contrary has been held by Judge Thompson of the United States. District Court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania in the Alverto case, 198 Fed. 688, which has been cited with approval and ■ followed in a short opinion by Judge Hand, in the Lampitoe case, 232 Fed. 382.

Let us examine the question. The authority of the courts to grant citizenship to those who are not citizens of the United States, whether aliens or inhabitants of possessions subject to the sovereign jurisdiction of the United States, owing allegiance thereto, is derived from and limited by the provisions of the naturalization laws... From the passage of the first naturalization act down to Í87Ó our laws permitted none to be admitted to citizenship except “free white persons.” See in re Ah Yup, 1 Fed. Cas. No. 104. In 1870 ah Act was passed containing the following, pro-, vision

“That, the naturalization laws are--hereby extended to-, aliens of. African nativity, and to -persons-of .African descent.”

[772]*772As was stated by .Judge Sawyer in the Ah Yup case:

“At the time of the .amendment, in 1870, extending the naturalization laws to the African race, Mr. Sumner made repeated and strenuous efforts to strike, tbe word 'white’ from the naturalization laws or to accomplish the same object by other language.”

All his efforts to do so failed, and the words limiting the aliens admissible to citizenship to white persons remained in the law as from the beginning, and the amendment simply extended the privilege of admission to citizenship to those of African nativity or African descent.

As was said by Judge Ward in United States v. Balsara, 180 Fed. 694:

“The revisers of the laws of the United States whose revision was adopted at the first session of the Forty-third Congress, 1873 to 1874, reported (section 2169, title 30), on the subject of naturalization in the following words: 'The provisipns of this title shall apply to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.’ As the revisers were not authorized to change the law, the omission of the words ‘free white persons’ was evidently an oversight and it was corrected by Act Feb. 18, 1875, c. 80, 18 Stat. 318, entitled, “An Act to correct errors and to supply omissions in the Revised Statutes of the United States’ as follows: 'Sec. 2169 is amended by inserting in the first line after the words ‘aliens’ the words ‘being free white persons and to aliens.’ ”

It will thus be seep that when from some cause the revisr ers omitted the words “free white persons,” Congress restored them by express enactment, and as a result the Revised Statutes of 1878 contain under the title “Natural-isation” the following:

“Section 2169. The provisions of this title shall apply to áliens being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.”

The uniform construction given by the courts to section 2169 has been that it forbids the granting of citizenship to any except free white persons and to those of African [773]*773descent or nativity. Numerous decisions have been rendered by the courts in which those who were not white persons nor of African descent nor of African nativity were denied citizenship. Those of Chinese, the Malay, the Japanese, the Indian and the Hawaiian races were denied on account of section 2169. . Even the half white and half Indian, born in America, in British Columbia, was denied on account of that Section.

As to the Chinese, see the following cases: In re Ah Yup, 1 Fed. Cas., No. 104 (1878); In re Gee Hop, 71 Fed. 274 (1895); In re Po, 28 N. Y. S. 383 (1894).

As to the Japanese, see: In re Saito, 62 Fed. 126, (1894); In re Takuji Yamashita, 30 Wash. 234, 70 Pac. 482, 59 L. R. A. 671 (1902).

As to the Hawaiian, see: In re Kanaka Nian, 6 Utah, 259, 21 Pac. 993, 4 L. R. A. 276 (1889).

As to the Indian, see: In re Camille, 6 Fed. 256 (1880); In re Burton, 1 Alaska, 111, (1900).

[1] On June 29, 1906, H. R. 15442, 34 Stat. 596, “An Act to provide for a uniform rule of Naturalization of Aliens throughout the United States, and to establish thé Bureau of Naturalization,” having passed both houses of Congress, was approved by the President and became a law, superseding all laws on the subject in conflict with it. Was section 2169 of the Statutes repealed by the Act? At the time it was passed the Congress was familiar, it must be presumed, with the effect of section 2169, and the construction given to it by the courts. All the opinions referred to in the foregoing had been published in the reports at the time. After a careful examination of the Congressional Record during the time the bill was before Congress, I have hot found any mention of section 2169 or of the decisions relating thereto. It is not mentioned in the Act. Section 26 of the Act expressly repeals sections 2165, 2167, 2168 and 2173 of the Revised Statutes, and section 39 of [774]*774Chapter 1012 of the Statutes at Large for the year 1903, 32 Stat. 1222, “and all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with o.r repugnant to the provisions of this Act.”

As was said by Judge Goff, in Bessho v. U. S., 178 Fed. 245: .

“By this legislation, (referring to the Act of June 29, 1906), a new and complete system of naturalization was adopted, all of the details of. which together with the method of procedure, and the courts having jurisdiction of it, were set forth and designated and all Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with or repugnant to its provisions were repealed. In section 26 of that Act is found an express repeal of sections 2165, 2167, 2168 and 2173 of the Revised Statutes. These repealed sections are all included in title 50 of said Revised Statutes, and demonstrate beyond doubt that Congress carefully considered all the provisions of that title and that it intended that the unrepealed sections thereof should still remain in force.

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Related

In re Yamashita
70 P. 482 (Washington Supreme Court, 1902)
In re Camille
6 F. 256 (U.S. Circuit Court, 1880)
In re Kanaka Nian
6 Utah 259 (Utah Supreme Court, 1889)
In re Buntaro Kumagai
163 F. 922 (W.D. Washington, 1908)
In re Knight
171 F. 299 (E.D. New York, 1909)
Bessho v. United States
178 F. 245 (Fourth Circuit, 1910)
United States v. Balsara
180 F. 694 (Second Circuit, 1910)
In re Alverto
198 F. 688 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1912)
In re Bautista
245 F. 765 (N.D. California, 1917)
In re Saito
62 F. 126 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1894)
In re Gee Hop
71 F. 274 (N.D. California, 1895)
In re Burton
1 Alaska 111 (D. Alaska, 1900)

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4 D. Haw. 770, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ocampo-hid-1916.