Fok Young Yo v. United States

• Citation: 46 L.Ed. 917,185 U.S. 296,22 S.Ct. 686
• Decision Date: 05 May 1902
• Docket Number: No. 478,478
• Parties: FOK YOUNG YO, Appt. , v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

185 U.S. 296

22 S.Ct. 686

46 L.Ed. 917

FOK YOUNG YO, Appt.,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 478.

Argued January 7, 1902.

Decided May 5, 1902.

This was a petition to the district court of the United States for the northern district of California for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition represented that the petitioner was a citizen of the Empire of China, and a resident of Guatemala in the Republic of Mexico, and was traveling to that place when interrupted in his journey as afterwards described; that on August 24, 1901, he purchased, for the sum of 183 Mexican dollars, from the agent of the Japanese steamship company of the Toyo Kisen Kaisha at Hong Kong in China, passage thence to San Jose de Guatemala in Mexico, and received from said agent a ticket for passage on the steamship Nippon Maru to the port of San Francisco, and an order upon the San Francisco agent of said company for a steerage ticket from San Francisco to San Jose de Guatemala; that upon arriving in the port of San Francisco he was, on September 19, 1901, examined by a customs inspector, his baggage and private papers opened, and his person searched; that, after the examination of the petitioner, the collector of customs at the port made an order of deportation, denying him the privilege of transit, and he was, by virtue of that order, detained by the agent of the steamship company in a frame building on the Pacific Mail dock at San Francisco, and, unless released by the court, would be deported and sent back to China; that the petitioner was not making application to enter the United States, or to pass in transit through the territory thereof, but was merely a passenger en route for a foreign port, and touching at the port of San Francisco while on his journey along the usual course of travel, and for the purpose of transhipping to another vessel; that the order under which he was held was illegal and void, and not authorized by any law of the United States, or by any treaty between the United States and the Empire of China; and that the collector of customs had no authority under the law to examine or to confine the petitioner.

The district attorney, by leave of court, intervened in behalf of the United States, and suggested that the petitioner was a native of the Empire of China, and a laborer by occupation, and before the filing of his petition arrived at San Francisco from Hong Kong in transit, through the territory of the United States, for the Republic of Mexico; that the collector of customs for the port of San Francisco, after careful and due investigation, had decided that he was satisfied that the petitioner did not intend in good faith to continue his voyage through the territory of the United States to the Republic of Mexico, and had for that reason denied him the privilege further to continue his journey through the territory of the United States, and had ordered him deported to China; and that the court had no jurisdiction over the person of the petitioner, or over the subject-matter of this proceeding.

The parties submitted the case to the decision of the court upon the following facts: 'The petitioner is a subject of the Empire of China. He arrived at the port of San Francisco on the Japanese steamship Nippon Maru, the manifest of which vessel states that he intended to go to San Jose de Guatemala. Petitioner herein also alleges that that was his intended destination. The collector of customs at the port of San Francisco did, on September 23, 1901, deny the petitioner the privilege of further pursuing his journey to his alleged point of destination. The petitioner has a ticket, or an order for a ticket, for a through passage from Hong Kong, China, to San Jose de Guatemala by steamer. The petitioner is now held by W. H. Avery, agent for the Japanese steamship company, by virtue of an order issued by the collector of customs for the port of San Francisco, directing him to retain the person of the petitioner in his custody, and deport him to China.'

The court ordered the petition and the writ of habeas corpus to be dismissed, and the petitioner remanded to custody; and he appealed to this court.

Mr. Maxwell Evarts for appellant.

Assistant Attorney General Hoyt for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

The facts upon which the parties submitted the case to the decision of the court below do not include, on the one hand, the statement of the petition that the petitioner was examined by a customs inspector, his baggage and papers opened, and his person searched; nor, on the other hand, the statements in the intervention of the United States, that the petitioner was a laborer by occupation, and that the decision of the collector for his detention and deportation was made after due and careful investigation, and for the reason that he was satisfied that the petitioner did not intend in good faith to continue his voyage through the territory of the United States to the Republic of Mexico. But the facts agreed are simply that the petitioner was a subject of the Empire of China, arriving at the port of San Francisco, whose intended destination, as appeared by the manifest of the vessel in which he arrived, and by his own allegation, was San Jose de Guatemala in the Republic of Mexico, and who had a ticket, or an order for a ticket, for a through passage from Hong Kong, China, to San Jose de Guatemala by steamer; and that the collector of customs at San Francisco denied him the privilege of further pursuing his journey to his alleged point of destination, and issued an order directing him to be detained and deported to China.

The whole question in the case, therefore, is whether this denial and order of the collector were authorized by law.

Before the treaty of 1894 between the United States and China, the privilege of transit of Chinese persons across the territory of the United States was not specifically mentioned in any treaty or statute, except in the last clause of § 8 of the act of September 13, 1888, chap. 1015, by which the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to make, and from time to time to change, 'such rules and regulations, not in conflict with this act, as he may deem necessary and proper to conveniently secure to such Chinese persons as are provided for in articles 2d and 3d of' a treaty between the United States and China, signed March 12, 1888, but not then ratified, 'the rights therein mentioned and such as shall also protect the United States against the coming and transit of persons not entitled to the benefit of the provisions of said articles.' 25 Stat. at L. 478. As that treaty was never ratified, it may be doubtful whether that section ever took effect. See Li Sing v. United States, 180 U. § 486, 490, 45 L. ed. 634, 636, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 449; United States v. Gee Lee, 50 Fed. 271, 1 C. C. A. 516, 7 U. S. App. 183.

But such privilege of transit was recognized by successive Attorneys General from 1882 to January, §894 (17 Ops. Atty. Gen. 416, 485; 18 Ops. Atty. Gen. 388; 19 Ops. Atty. Gen. 369; 20 Ops. Atty. Gen. 693), and it was regulated by orders of the Treasury Department.

By regulation of Secretary Folger of January 23, 1883, it was provided that 'where a Chinese consul resides at the port of landing or entrance into the United States by any Chinese laborer claiming to be merely in transit through the territory of the United States in the course of a journey to or from other countries, the certificate of such Chinese consul, identifying the bearer by name, height, age, etc., so far as practicable, and showing the place and date of his arrival, the place at which he is to leave the United States, the date when his journey is to begin, and that it is to be continuous and direct, shall be accepted as prima facie evidence;' that, 'in the absence of such certificate, other competent evidence to show the identity of the person, and the fact that a bona fide transit only is intended, may be received;' and that 'the production of a through ticket across the whole territory of the United States intended to be traversed may be received as competent proof, and should be exhibited to the collector and verified by him. Such tickets and all other evidence presented must be so stamped or marked and dated by the customs officer as to prevent their use a second time.'

By regulations of Secretary McCulloch of January 14, 1885, the regulations of January 23, 1883, 'relative to the transit of Chinese laborers through the territory of the United States, will be applied to all Chinese persons intending to so go...