Wong Wing Sin v. Nagle

• Decision Date: 07 December 1931
• Docket Number: No. 6528.,6528.
• Parties: WONG WING SIN v. NAGLE, Commissioner of Immigration.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

54 F.2d 321 (1931)

WONG WING SIN v. NAGLE, Commissioner of Immigration.

No. 6528.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

December 7, 1931.

Stephen M. White, of San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.

Geo. J. Hatfield, U.S. Atty., and H.A. Van Der Zee, Asst. U.S. Atty., both of San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

Before WILBUR and SAWTELLE, Circuit Judges, and JAMES, District Judge.

WILBUR, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a denial of a petition of Wong Guey At for writ of habeas corpus for the petitioner's alleged son Wong Wing Sin, who was denied admission to the United States by the immigration authorities and ordered returned to China. The petitioner is an American citizen, and for that reason claims that his alleged son Wong Wing Sin, born in China, is entitled to admission as an American citizen. He was denied admission because the testimony of petitioner and his alleged sons showed discrepancies which in the judgment of the immigration authorities justified the rejection of their testimony.

We are here dealing with the familiar question as to whether or not such rejection was so arbitrary as to have deprived the applicant for admission of a fair trial. When the alleged father, Wong Guey At, returned from China on January 7, 1900, he stated that he was not married, although he now claims that he was married on March 6, 1898, to the mother of the applicant and of Wong Wing Gong, a prior landed brother of Wong Wing Sin, who was born January 9, 1899. Wong Wing Gong was admitted to the United States as an American citizen in July, 1913. He has made several trips to and from China. Wong Wing You, the alleged second son of the petitioner, was admitted as an American citizen in July, 1913. When Wong Wing Gong applied for admission to the United States in March, 1919, upon returning from a visit to China, his application was denied by the Bureau of Immigration at Washington, and he departed for China. Upon his return, August 4, 1921, he was again denied admission by a Board of Special Inquiry, but, upon appeal taken to the Secretary of Labor, he was admitted. Thus, two older sons of the petitioner have been admitted to the United States as citizens thereof. The present applicant for admission, Wong Wing Sin, is aged sixteen, and is claimed to be the fourth son of the applicant, born September 14, 1915.

One of the discrepancies relied upon by the immigration authorities in rejecting the application of Wong Wing Sin for admission is that, when Wong Wing Gong arrived from China October 15, 1930, he stated that he had three sons, Wong Sing Ming, aged 10, born December 21, 1921; Wong You Ming, aged 4, born December 13, 1927; and Wong Fuey Ming, aged 2, born March 15, 1929. Upon the present application for admission of his alleged brother, however, Wong Wing Gong reverses the age and date of birth of the last two children, giving the age of Wong Fuey Ming as 4, and Wong You Ming as 2. He was examined somewhat at length in regard to his statement, and his attention was called to the testimony he had given at the time of his landing in 1930, and he explained that his statement made at that time must have been incorrectly reported. On the other hand, the petitioner, who is admittedly the father of Wong Wing Gong, testified on this hearing to the same names and the same order of birth of the sons of Wong Wing Gong that Wong Wing Gong had stated on his admission in 1930, and the applicant Wong Wing Sin agrees with his alleged father in regard to the names and order of birth of his alleged brother's children. It must be conceded that mistakes may be made in giving the ages and the date of birth of children, particularly by fathers....