Weedin v. Wong Tat Hing
| Decision Date | 01 June 1925 |
| Docket Number | No. 4387.,4387. |
| Citation | 6 F.2d 201 |
| Parties | WEEDIN, Commissioner of Immigration, v. WONG TAT HING et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Thos. P. Revelle, U. S. Atty., and Donald G. Graham, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Seattle, Wash., for appellant.
Hugh C. Todd, of Seattle, Wash., for appellees.
Before GILBERT, HUNT, and RUDKIN, Circuit Judges.
Section 6 of the Act of May 6, 1882 (22 Stat. 60), entitled "An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese," as amended by the Act of July 5, 1884 (23 Stat. 116 Comp. St. § 4293), provides that every Chinese person, other than a Chinese laborer, who may be entitled to come within the United States, and who shall be about to come to the United States, shall obtain the permission of and be identified by the Chinese government, or of such other foreign government of which at the time such Chinese person shall be a subject, to be evidenced by a certificate issued by such government. The certificate is required to be in the English language and must set forth certain information concerning the applicant therefor, and if the applicant be a merchant the certificate shall, in addition to the other requirements, state the nature, character, and estimated value of the business carried on by him prior to and at the time of his application to enter. It is further provided that nothing therein contained or in the treaty between the United States and China (22 Stat. 826) shall be construed as embracing within the meaning of the word "merchant," hucksters, peddlers, or those engaged in taking, drying, or otherwise preserving shell or other fish for home consumption or exportation.
The certificate therein provided for, and the identity of the person named therein shall, before such person goes on board any vessel to proceed to the United States, be viséed by the indorsement of the diplomatic representatives of the United States in the foreign country from which the certificate issues, or of the consular representative of the United States at the port or place from which the person named in the certificate is about to depart, and the diplomatic representative or consular representative, whose indorsement is so required, is empowered, and it shall be his duty, before indorsing such certificate, to examine into the truth of the statements set forth therein, and if he shall find upon examination that any of the statements therein contained are untrue it shall be his duty to refuse to indorse the same. The certificate, when viséed as required, is prima facie evidence of the facts set forth therein, and shall be produced to the collector of customs of the port in the district in the United States at which the person named therein shall arrive, and afterward produced to the proper authorities of the United States when lawfully demanded, and shall be the sole evidence permissible on the part of the person so producing the same to establish a right of entry into the United States. The certificate thus provided for may be controverted, and the facts therein stated disproved, by the United States authorities.
The term "merchant" is defined by section 2 of the Act of November 3, 1893 (28 Stat. 7 Comp. St. § 4324), as follows: "A merchant is a person engaged in buying and selling merchandise, at a fixed place of business, which business is conducted in his name, and who during the time he claims to be engaged as a merchant, does not engage in the performance of any manual labor, except such as is necessary in the conduct of his business as such merchant."
Section 3 of the Immigration Act of May 26, 1924 (43 Stat. 154), provides: "When used in this act the term `immigrant' means any alien departing from any place outside the United States destined for the United States, except * * * (6) an alien entitled to enter the United States solely to carry on trade under and in pursuance of the provisions of a present existing treaty of commerce and navigation."
The appellees here are 19 in number. Thirteen are merchants and 6 are sons of merchants. Each merchant presented to the immigration authorities at the port of arrival the certificate prescribed by section 6 of the act of 1884, together with proof of his identity as the proper holder of the certificate. The applications to enter were denied by the Department of Labor, upon the ground that the applicants were not merchants within the meaning of the law. The applicants thereupon applied to the court below for a writ of habeas corpus, and the present appeal is prosecuted from an order allowing the writ and granting a discharge.
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United States v. Kwan Shun Yue
...abrogated and that the certificate was prima facie evidence as to the alien's right to enter as a treaty merchant. Weedin v. Wong Tat Hing, et al., 9 Cir., 1925, 6 F.2d 201. Prior to the application for entry, July 20, 1924, the Naturalization and Immigration Act of 1924 had been enacted an......
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Petition of Kwan Shun Yue, 131990.
...District Court was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on November 13, 1925, in the case of Weedin v. Wong Tat Hing, 6 F.2d 201. The findings of the designated Naturalization Examiner in the present proceeding for naturalization, contains the statement, "A c......
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Yee Si v. Boyd, 15314.
...and subjects of the most favored nation." This Court has specifically held that the Treaty is not self-executing. In Weedin v. Wong Tat Hing, 9 Cir., 1925, 6 F.2d 201, 202, Judge Rudkin "The treaty between the United States and China (22 Stat. 826) consists of four brief articles and is not......
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