United States v. Wong Dep Ken

57 F. 206, 1893 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106
District Court, S.D. California·Decided July 31, 1893·No. No. 437·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

ROSS, District Judge.

This is an appeal taken by the defendant, a Chinese per-son, from an order made by a court commissioner [207]*207for this district directing' that he he imprisoned at hard labor in the state prison at San Quentin, and thereafter deported to China. The proceedings before the commissioner were commenced by (he tiling with, him of a verified complaint charging that, after the passage of the act of congress entitled “An act to amend an act entitled ‘An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese/” approved May 6, 1882, (22 Stat. 58,) “one Ming Lee Tue did come into the United States from a foreign place, and, having come, has remained within the United States; that the said Ming Lee Tue has been found, and now is, unlawfully within the United States; and that at all the times herein mentioned the said Ming Lee Tue was and is a Chinese laborer.”

Upon this complaint a, warrant was issued by the commissioner, and the defendant, whose true name was found to he Wong Dep Ken, having been apprehended, an examination of the charge was had before the commissioner, who, after examination, found him to be a Chinese person and a laborer by occupation, and who found and adjudged him to he unlawfully within the United States, and therefore ordered;

“First. That said Wong- Dep Ken be imprisoned at hard labor for th'> period of two (2) days at the state’s prison of the state of California, at San Quentin, .in-said state of California.
“Second. That thereafter said Wong Dep Ken be removed from the United States (o China; and 1 order that said deportation of the said Wong Dep Ken be made from the port of San Francisco, within the limits of the northern district of California; and I further order that said Wong D p Ken he, and lie is hereby, committed to the United States marshal for the southern district of California for the purposes aforesaid.”

The appeal was taken by virtue of the thirteenth section of the act of congress entitled “An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States,” approved September 13, 1888, (25 Stat. 47(5.) A motion made on behalf of the government to dismiss the appeal was recently denied by the court, for reasons given in an opinion filed on June 30th last. 57 Fed. Rep. 203. The appeal is now for disposition upon its merits.

It appears from the record that the commissioner found from the evidence adduced before him that the defendant is a Chinese person, and a laborer by occupation; that defendant failed to establish, by affirmative proof, to the satisfaction of the commissioner, his lawful right to remain in the United States; and that he did not make it appear to the commissioner that he (defendant) is a subject or citizen of any oilier country than China. Based upon these facts, the judgment and order appealed from were given, and they rest for their support upon the provisions of the act of congress entitled*“An act to prohibit the coining of Chinese persons into the United States,” approved May 5, 1892, known as the “Geary Act,” (Stat. 1891-92, p. 25.) The third section of that act is as follows:

•‘That any Chinese person or person of Chinese descent arrested under the provisions of this act or the ar1s hereby ex;ended shall be adjudged to be' unlawfully within the United States, unless such person shall establish, by [208]*208affirmative proof, to Uic satisfaction of sucli justice, judge, or commissioner, kis lawful rigkt to remain in tlie United States.”

And its fourth .section reads:

“That any suck Chinese person or person of Chinese descent convicted and adjudged to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States shall be imprisoned at hard labor for a period of not exceeding one year, and thereafter removed from the United States, as hereinbefore provided.”

—That is to say, as provided by the second section of the act, which is as follows:

“That any Chinese person or person of Chinese descent, when convicted and adjudged under any of said laws to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States, shall be removed from the United States to China, unless he or they shall make it appear to the justice, judge, or commissioner before whom he or they are tried that he or they are subjects or citizens of some other country, in which case he or they shall be removed froin the United States to such country: provided, that, in any case where such other country of which such Chinese person shall claim to be a citizen or subject shall demand any tax as a condition of the removal of such per.son to that country, he or she shall be removed to China.”

It will be observed that by the third section of the act of May 5, 1892, the burden of proof of his lawful right to remain* in the United States is placed on the Chinese person or person of Chinese descent charged with being unlawfully in this country. No one questions the power of congress to prohibit the coming into this country of any cláss of foreigners deemed prejudicial to the interests of our people. Against the coming into the country of Chinese laborers, congress has been legislating for years. The reason for such legislation is an old story, and need not be repeated. But, notwithstanding the enactments upon the subject, the laws have been evaded in many ways. By false testimony and concocted evidence the courts have been imposed upon in cases almost without number, and by sea and land the. prohibited class in large numbers have been smuggled into the country in one way or another. To prevent all of this, and give effect to its laws upon the subject, as far as possible, congress deemed it wise by the provision in question to put the burden of proof of his lawful right to remain in the United States on the Chinese person or person of Chinese descent charged with being unlawfully within their borders. To those not residents of and not familiar with the Pacific slope, and not so much subject to the evils intended to be guarded against by the exclusion acts, “the lines laid down for their enforcement may,” as appropriately and well said by Judge Severens in the Case of Sing Lee, 54 Fed. Rep. 334, “seem hard; and because such summary dealings with the rights of persons are out of the common order to which we are accustomed, and are liable to produce injustice in many cases on account of their summary expedition and the presumption against the prisoners, they may seem severe; but, if the power resides in congress to enact such provisions, the discretion whether it will do so rests in the lawmaking power, and the courts must presume it was exercised upon sufficient reasons.” In respect to the provision of the Geary act putting the burden of proof on those coming within the class [209]*209thus interdicted, 1 agree with Judge Severens in the case cited, that there is uot only nothing in it violative of the provisions of the constitution of the United States, hut, for the reasons given by him, and in view of the circumstances already referred to and of others that may he suggested, that the provision in question is not unreasonable. He says:

"The person brought before the commissioner is one of a class which, by the terms of the statute, is obnoxious to its operation. That must appear before the general jurisdiction can be exorcised, and since, generally, that class is interdicted, lie can only escape the common lot upon its appearing that he is not within the general condemnation.

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United States v. Wong Dep Ken, 57 F. 206, 1893 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106 (S.D. Cal. 1893).

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