The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-11-11
JACK As An IMMIGRANT
RIGHTS or FOREIGN TARs rs
AMERICAN pORTs.
a Much Nexed question on which the
Department Of Justice Has Rendered
an Exhaustive opinion.

constantly coming up Ia some form Ina
connection with the enforcement of the
immigration laws. The Department Of
Justice at the request of the Treasury
Department has rendered an exhaust
i've and luminous opinion ON the sub
jcct. The opinion is 10y Acting Attor-
ney General James NJ. Beck, In it's con-
illusions il is as follows.
1T is important. however. to remem-
Der that the salutary immigration stat
utes can not be defeated by intending
immigrants shipping as sailors. Judge
Toulmin recognized this i'm the decision
referred to by expressly approving the
ruling of your Department in the case
of the Lancashire. Aliens who become
seamen on vessels for the purpose of
securing an entrance into this country
free from the barriers of the immigra-
ton statutes, are none the less alien
immigrants and can be stopped as such.
In my judgment, II is not important
whether the master of the vessel who
ships them was in collision with them,
or knew of their purpose to escape.
Only such seamen are excepted from
the class of passengers upon whom the
head money tax is imposed, and from
the class of alien immigrants, as are
seamen i'm good faith, and have no in
tentiOn, by reason of their passage to
this country to leave the ship and
make entry into this country. In the
practical administration of the law it
may be difficult to determine whether
such seamen have secured their dis
charge from the vessel, or have de-
serted from it on their arrival at an
American port, for the purpose of OBJ
tanning such entry. They may have
escaped or deserted only for the pur-
pose of shipping on another vessel
which is outward bound, and with no
intention of abandoning their seafaring
occupation. To prevent a violation of
the immigration laws in the manner
indicated is a question of practical adj
ministration, as to which 1t is not pos
sible to lay down legal principles, and
the character of which is beyond the
province of this Department to deter
mine. AS my predecessor, Attorney
General Griggs, pointed out in an opin-
ion rendered you on May s, 1899 (22 OPP,
460), the authority given you by sec
tiQns 2 and of the immigration law of
1852, to establish such regulations and
rules and issue from time to time such
instructions not inconsistent with law
as he shall deem best calculated to pro-
| tect the United States and immigrants
into the United States from fraud and
| loss, and for carrying out the provis-
| ions of this act, shows that by these
and other provisions of law ii is made
clear that Congress, aware of the prac-
| teal impossibility of establishing in
advance by infiexible orders of it's own
all the rules and methods that so in
definite and complex a business, en-
| tangled as it was with that of carrying
! passengers, would demand, intended to
vest in the Secretary power to make
and apply such as would, from time to
time, be shown by experience to be nee
essary and convenient
| 1t does not follow that because aliens
are seamen that they are free from
such examination and inspection as you
have either required or may hereafter
require by regulation. By the immi-
grafton statutes Congress intended to
exclude certain classes of undesirable
| immigrants from entrance into this
country, and the law should be inter-
preted so as to effectuate this object
LAS was said by Attorney General
| Miller, in an opinion given your De-
partment December 30, 1890 90 Op.
| 1860;
d" The power of Congress to prescribe
| the conditions under which foreigners
may enter this country is plenary, be-
cause ii has the power of absolutely
excluding them. Chinese Exclusion
( Cases, 1870 U. S. r., 531) The exist
ence of such a power implies the ancil-
larry power of OBTAINING all persons,
States or not, a reasonable length OF
time that their citizenship may be es-
tablshed-'
by similar reasoning, it is in your
power to make such examination and
take such precaution as may be reason
ably necessary to prevent any alien
immigrant, whether he be a sailor or
not, from entering this country in the
sense that all immigrants enter it. AS
l have said, an alien immigrant, who is
of the prohibited classes referred to in
the immigration statutes, does not es-
cape their operation because he ships
as "a seamen. If he ships as such sea-
men in good faith, and comes cum ami
mo revertendi he is not within the pro-
hibited class, because his entry into
our ports is only of temporary char
acter and is tolerated from consider
atoms of convenience and the necessi-
ties of commerce. If, however, it be
shown to your satisfaction that such
alien has shipped to this country sim
ply as a convenient means to make en-
try here or to avoid the operation of
the immigration statutes, then he be-
comes subject to their operation as
fully as any other alien immigrant,
and If within the prohibited class can
be deported Thus, a convict, a poly
gamist, or a person with a contagious
disease can not obtain entrance to this
country, exempt from the salutary pro-
visions which exclude others of his
class, simply because he has shipped
as a seaman. The power to exclude
an alien immigrants who comes to this
country as a seaman carries with ii
the right to detain and examine all
seamen of a given vessel, if, in your
judgment, the execution of the immi-
grafton statutes requires IT.
The question, therefore, is neces-
sarily one of practical administration,
and has been committed by Congress
TO your sound judgment and discre-
ton.
81 have used the expression make !
entry advisedly, in order to distin-
guish the entry into this country of
those designated in general terms as
allen immigrants from the temporary |
presence Of alien sailors, who have ar
rived here i'm the pursuit of their call |
ing and are awaiting their departure.
In a literal sense the latter have en- |
tered the country, but 1t is obvious that |