United States v. Hing Quong Chow
| Decision Date | 08 December 1892 |
| Docket Number | 2,006. |
| Citation | 53 F. 233 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. HING QUONG CHOW. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
At Law. Indictment of Hing Quong Chow for being unlawfully in the United States. On motion to quash. Granted.
CHINESE-- UNLAWFUL PRESENCE-- INDICTMENT.
The act of May 5, 1892, providing that any Chinese person 'convicted and adjudged' to be not lawfully entitled to remain in the United States shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than one year, and thereafter removed from the country, cannot be made the basis of an indictment. The statute is political, and not criminal, in its nature; the proceeding is summary in character, and the imprisonment is not for the purpose of punishment, but for detention until the removal is effected in the manner provided by the act.
F. B Earhart, U.S. Atty.
Larry O'Donnell and T. A. Marshall, for defendant.
The defendant is before the court under an indictment in which he is charged with having come into the United States without lawful right so to do. There are two counts, but they substantially set forth the same offense.
The statute relied upon by the prosecuting officer is found in the fourth section of the act of congress of May 5, 1892. That statute, as it seems to me, deals with the coming in of Chinese as a police matter, and is the re-enacting and continuing of what might be termed a 'quarantine against Chinese.' They are treated as would be infected merchandise, and the imprisonment is not a punishment for a crime, but a means of keeping a damaging individual safely till he can be sent away. In a summary manner, and as a political matter, this coming in is to be prevented. The matter is dealt with as political, and not criminal. The words used are those which are ordinarily found in criminal statutes; but the intent of congress is, as it seems to me unmistakable. What is termed 'being convicted and adjudged' means 'found,' 'decided' by the commissioner, representing not the criminal law, but the political department of the government. Section 3 is as follows:
'That any Chinese person, or person of Chinese descent, arrested under the provisions of this act or the acts hereby extended, shall be adjudged to be unlawfully within the United States, unless such person shall establish by affirmative proof, to the satisfaction of such justice, judge, or commissioner, his lawful right to remain in the United States.'
Then follows the section relied upon as authorizing this indictment,-- section 4:
'That any such Chinese person, or person of Chinese descent, convicted and adjudged to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the United States, shall be imprisoned at hard labor for a period not exceeding...
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Low Foon Yin v. United States Immigration Com'r
...instead of others more appropriate, does not convert a proceeding of a political nature into one that is criminal. United States v. Hing Quong Chow (C.C.) 53 F. 233. 'deportation,' said the Supreme Court in the case Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698-709, 13 Sup.Ct. 1016, 1020, 37......
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In re Sing Lee
...or urged by counsel, upon the most liberal interpretation. If the view taken of the statute of 1892 by Judge Billings in U.S. v. Hing Quong Chow. 53 F. 233, (in which holds that it should be construed, not as creating a criminal offense, but as prescribing merely a method of removal, and re......