The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-03-09
SENDING BACK THE CHINESE

A correspondent, in another column,
asks why about fifteen returning Chi
namen, holding regularly issued re-
turning permits, We're sent back. to
China in the Coptic, when they had
the right to appeal from the decision
OF the immigration Commissioner to
the Secretary OF the Treasury, and
pending the appeal the persons MAX
ing it had the right to remain here.
The law governing these cases is as
follows:
SIN every case where an alien is
excluded from admission into the
limited States under any law or treaty
now existing or hereafter made, the
decision of the appropriate immigra-
ton or customs officers, if adverse to
the admission of such alien, shall be
final, unless reversed on appeal to the
Secretary of the Treasury"
Approved August IS, 1894.
1t was said at the time of their ar
rival here, that access to the names
of many Chinese, in the possession of
the authorities, whoever the author
tiles WERE and access to many OF the
Chinese themselves with return per-
mits, was forbidden. This is fact
OF which we have no positive proof.
If these returning Cinnamon were
forbidden facilities to protect their
rights, by an appeal to the Secretary
OF the Treasury, it was an act of gross
injustice. 1T is hardly to be presumed
that these Chinese with liberty, proper
ty and the right to reside here with
their families, all at stake would return
to China, without some effort to avoid
such distressing event. We do not
know whether the officials who drove
them back to China informed them of
this right of appeal, and, further, in
formed them that as a matter of
course, they could remain here until
the appeal was decided by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury. The report cur
rent at the time was that they were
left in ignorance of their rights, and
as one humane woman said it had
1.-THE touch of the Dreyfus trial about
it," in driving them back to China.
The Federal law of 1894, providing
for an appeal, declares that if the eX-
.clusion is made, under ANY law or
treaty now existing or hereafter
made,'' then an appeal may be made.
The right of appeal to the Secretary
is given, therefore, from any decision
made under the annexation act.
If these unfortunate people were sent
back, because they did not know OF
this explicit right to appeal, or if sent
back, because they were unable to
make the appeal, for want of means,
it was an act of injustice for which
the community is morally responsible
When a person charged with crime
tells the Court he has no means for
paying lawyers, the Court directs some
lawyer to defend him, and his services
are glatutous.
Aside from the evidence of current
report, winch is as reliable as the evil
dence of the usual current reports
which men believe, there is something
singular in the way those Cinnamon
were driven back on the Coptic, when
they had the right of appeal, and the
right co-existing with it to remain I'M
TIL the appeal was heard. One of these
returning men with a regular permit
was a resident of Maui with his wife
and child He owned on that Island
considerable property. For some rea-
son he did not exercise his right oil
appeal. Why?
1t would have been only just and
humane and strictly legal as well, fol
the Commissioner or the Collector O
Customs acting with him, to have salt
to him: 81 shall order you back, be
cause am a subordinate and have NJ
Fcretion in the case. But you have
The right of appeal from my order K
the Secretary of the Treasury. The
law gives it, and the law contemplate:
an effectual appeal. Tt does not con
template driving you back to China
at your own expense and forcing yol
to stay there until the appeal is heard
L must detain you here until the Sec
rotary decides
And now comes the order from tn