Ex parte Lew Lin Shew

• Decision Date: 04 August 1914
• Docket Number: 15673.
• Citation: 217 F. 317
• Parties: Ex parte LEW LIN SHEW.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California

217 F. 317

Ex parte LEW LIN SHEW.

No. 15673.

United States District Court, N.D. California.

August 4, 1914

Habeas corpus proceedings to obtain the release of Lew Lin Shew, a Chinese alien, from custody under a deportation warrant. Writ granted, and petitioner discharged.

John L McNab, and Timothy Healy, both of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner.

John W Preston, U.S. Atty., and Walter E. Hettman, Asst. U.S. Atty both of San Francisco, Cal., for respondent.

DOOLING District Judge.

This matter was heard upon the petition for a writ of habeas corpus and a return filed thereto, by which all the facts were presented to the court. It appears that Lew Lin Shew, a Chinese alien, was duly admitted at the port of San Francisco, on April 24, 1912, as the minor son of a resident Chinese merchant. He was later arrested on a warrant, dated March 3, 1914, which warrant charged:

'That the said alien is unlawfully in the United States, in that he entered without inspection under the Immigration Law (section 20), and in that he entered in violation of another ('any') law of the United States, to wit, the Chinese exclusion laws (section 21 of the Act of February 20, 1907).'

Upon a hearing being had, a warrant of deportation was issued; the grounds of such deportation being, as stated in said warrant:

'That the said alien is unlawfully in the United States, in that he has been found therein in violation of the Chinese exclusion laws, and is therefore subject to deportation under the provisions of section 21 of the act of February 20, 1907, as amended March 26, 1910.'

The charge that the alien entered without inspection finds no support in the evidence, and has apparently been abandoned. The statement in the warrant of deportation that 'he is unlawfully in this country, in that he has been found therein in violation of the Chinese exclusion laws,' is so broad as to convey absolutely no idea of the specific reason for which the alien has been ordered deported. It is quite true, and has been frequently so held, that in proceedings before the immigration officers, looking to the deportation of aliens, no such particularity is required as is essential in court proceedings; but this does not mean that an omnibus charge of being in this country in violation of law, which does not in any degree whatever advise the alien as to just what he is called upon to meet, will satisfy the requirements either of the...