Ex parte Gregoire, 24652-S.
| Decision Date | 12 June 1945 |
| Docket Number | No. 24652-S.,24652-S. |
| Citation | 61 F. Supp. 92 |
| Parties | Ex parte GREGOIRE. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of California |
Fred McDonald, of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner.
Frank J. Hennessy, U. S. Atty., of San Francisco, Cal., for I. F. Wixon, District Director of Immigration and Naturalization, Department of Justice, respondent.
Petitioner, detained as an enemy alien by the District Director of Immigration and Naturalization for the port of San Francisco, seeks release by writ of habeas corpus on the ground that he is a French citizen and therefore wrongfully deprived of his liberty.
Petitioner was taken into custody under a warrant of arrest issued by the Attorney General of the United States, by order of the President, on January 2, 1942. Title 50 U. S. C. A. § 21; Presidential Proclamation No. 2526, 55 Stat. 1705, issued December 8, 1941. The Government moves that the petition be denied and the order to show cause heretofore issued be discharged. The facts are undisputed and counsel for respective parties have stipulated that the matter may be submitted upon the record and papers in the case, as though a hearing had been had upon the merits.
Petitioner was born in Metz, Province of Lorraine, Germany, on October 9, 1894. His father was born in the Province of Lorraine in 1865, prior to its cession to Germany. The Treaty of Peace of 1919 provided that a native of Lorraine, descended from those who were French citizens prior to the annexation of the Province by Germany, became, with certain exceptions not applicable here, ipso facto nationals of France. Prior to his entry into the United States in 1941, petitioner practiced law in France for some twenty-two years. His French citizenship is admitted.
The question for decision turns on the interpretation of section 21 of 50 U.S.C.A., which provides that: "Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government * * * all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies." (Italics supplied.)
In United States ex rel. D'Esquiva v. Uhl, 2 Cir., 137 F.2d 903, 905, the court held that an Austrian who left Austria and established French residence twenty years before the invasion of Austria by Germany, did not become a German citizen, but remained a native of Austria. Petitioner relies upon...
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United States v. Watkins
...They came before the United States District Court for Northern California, and on each occasion the writ was refused. See Ex parte Gregoire, 61 F.Supp. 92. Thereafter, and when Gregoire had been brought within this jurisdiction, he asked for and obtained a writ. When brought into court, he ......
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United States v. Watkins, 28
...Three years later, in April 1945, he made a second application which the same judge again denied without issuance of a writ. Ex parte Gregoire, D.C., 61 F.Supp. 92. Thereafter the relator was taken to Ellis Island and was informed that an order had been issued by the Attorney General for hi......