Wagio Kong Tjauw Wong v. Esperdy

214 F. Supp. 264, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9785
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 31, 1963
StatusPublished

This text of 214 F. Supp. 264 (Wagio Kong Tjauw Wong v. Esperdy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wagio Kong Tjauw Wong v. Esperdy, 214 F. Supp. 264, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9785 (S.D.N.Y. 1963).

Opinion

WEINFELD, District Judge.

This is an action to review the denial of plaintiff’s application to adjust his status from a nonimmigrant to that of a permanent resident immigrant. The parties are in accord that the matter is ripe for disposition and each moves for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

The legal issue revolves about the appropriate quota to which plaintiff's application is chargeable. The essential facts are not in dispute. The plaintiff was born in Surinam (Dutch Guiana), of which he is a citizen. His father is a full-blooded Chinese and his mother is a full-blooded Indonesian. He lawfully entered the United States in 1953 as a student and ever since has been a bona fide nonimmigrant. He has pursued studies here leading to a degree in electrical engineering. In 1960 he became the beneficiary of an approved visa petition conferring upon him first preference quota status under section 203(a) (1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 19521 which permits such preferential consideration to aliens of special skills whose services are urgently needed in, and are likely to be beneficial to the national economy, cultural interests or welfare of the United States.

In March, 1961 plaintiff applied to change his status from a nonimmigrant [265]*265alien to that of a permanent resident quota immigrant. To avoid the necessity of leaving the United States and then returning with a visa, plaintiff sought adjustment of his status under section 245 of the Act, which authorizes such action by the Attorney General when it appears that an immigration visa is available to the alien at the time his application is approved.2 At this point the dispute arose. The District Director ruled that the plaintiff was chargeable to the “Chinese persons” quota, rather than the “Asia-Pacific triangle” quota, to which plaintiff contends he is chargeable. The ruling was premised on regulations promulgated by the Secretary of State which (1) define “Chinese person,” 3 (2) provide that “regardless of his place of birth” he is chargeable to the “Chinese persons” racial quota,4 and (3) exclude a “Chinese person” from quota charge-ability to the Asia-Pacific triangle quota.5

Plaintiff contends that the regulations applied to an immigrant such as he run counter to the provisions of section 202 of the 1952 Act6 7which govern the quota chargeability of aliens who are attributable by at least one-half their ancestry to a people or peoples indigenous to the Asia-Pacific triangle. He points in particular to section 202(b) (6) under which he claims he is chargeable to the Asia-Pacific triangle quota. The parties agree that if chargeable to the “Chinese persons” quota, plaintiff’s application was properly denied, since the first preferences thereunder were and are exhausted ; if chargeable to the Asia-Pacific triangle quota, his application should have been granted, since a visa was and is immediately available under that quota.

The determintion of the issue requires reference to the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and to certain repealed sections of earlier acts which touch upon the quota system.1

The first Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted in 1882 and generally barred persons of the Chinese race, especially Chinese laborers, from entering the United States.8 This restrictive policy was continued without substantial change for over sixty years. On December 17, 1943 Congress repealed all Chinese exclusion acts and persons of the Chinese race were made eligible for immigration and naturalization.9 Pursuant thereto, an annual quota for “Chinese persons” was fixed at 105 regardless of place of birth.10 This was in addition to the existing quota of 100 for non-Chinese persons born in China and eligible for naturalization pursuant to the Immigration Act of 1924 which established the National Origins Quota System.11

The Act of December 17, 1943 did not define “Chinese persons.” However, by regulation, the term as used in section 2 of the Act was defined to mean “persons who are of as much as one-half Chinese blood and are not of as much as one-half blood of a race or races ineligible to citizenship.”12 And in July, 1946 Congress did define Chinese persons in an act entitled “admission * * * of persons of races indigenous to India.” It provided that for the purposes of section 2 of the 1943 Act the term “Chinese [266]*266person” shall mean any person who is as much as one-half Chinese blood and eligible to naturalization.13 Significantly, this definition was designed to prevent orientals other than Chinese from claiming privileges under the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act, and was similar in objective to a like provision covering persons of the East Indian race.14

Finally, by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, race as a barrier to immigration and naturalization was' eliminated. Congress, in establishing a comprehensive framework for immigration and naturalization, repealed the provisions of the 1943 Act relating to “Chinese persons” as well as that section of the 1946 Act which defined the term.15 Thus, in the consideration of our problem it must be borne in mind that since 1952 there has been no legislative definition of Chinese persons.

Sections 201 and 202 of the 1952 Act took the place of pre-existing acts or portions thereof covering the quota system.16 Under predecessor acts the determination of the annual immigration . quota was based on the “national origin” formula. The new Act substituted “quota areas” for the term “nationality” as more appropriate in determining the annual immigration quota. A “quota area” is allocated to each independent country, self-governing dominion, and mandated or international trusteeship territory, other than the United States, its outlying possessions and the countries of the Western Hemisphere.

Under section 201 the annual quota attributable to a particular quota area is the same number which was previously determined in establishing the national origins quota under section 11 of the 1924 Act. In practical effect, this obviated a redetermination of the annual quotas under the new Act.17 Several qualifications should be noted. One relates to the computation of quotas for quota areas within a geographical area designated as the Asia-Pacific triangle, since national origin quotas had been previously unavailable for natives of those areas. Roughly, the Asia-Pacific triangle embraces all Asian countries from India to Japan and all Pacific islands north of Australia and New Zea-land.18 Another exception provides that the existing quota for “Chinese persons” was to be continued. This continues the quota of 105 for “Chinese persons” established following the passage of the 1943 Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act. Congress thus provided for two quotas; one of 105 for “Chinese persons” and a “China” quota of 100 available to non-Chinese persons who were born in China.19

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Bluebook (online)
214 F. Supp. 264, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wagio-kong-tjauw-wong-v-esperdy-nysd-1963.