BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-10-20
The G()lZ0|eZ CQye
DEPORTING ALIENS EASIER.
IMMIGRATION BUREAU FREE
FROM HABEAS CORPUS.

Fairness And Justice Of Gov
ernment Officials Recognized
Abstract Of Judge Lacombe's
Porto Rican Decision.
(New York Evening Post, Oct. 13
Commissioner William Williams said
to-day that the decision of United
States Judge Lacombe this week has
set at rest the question whether the
Government has the power to deport
Porto Ricans the same as other aliens.
"The decision of Justice Bischoff, in
the State Court in the Brantwein case. y
he continued, lis another signal victory
for the immigration Department, and
will serve to shut off lawyers from
rushing in at the last minute with a
writ of habeas corpus to prevent us
from deporting aliens whose cases have
been heard, and acted upon by our
boards of special inquiry. Justice Bis
choff held that the United States sta
tutes providing for the exclusion of GER
tain classes of aliens covered the case,
and the State Court had no right in
habeas corpus proceedings to revie ac-
ton of the United States authorities.
He further held that a decision of an
Inspector of immigration, within the
authority conferred upon him by the
immigration statutes, is final and con-
elusive against an aliens right to land
except on appeal to the Commissioner
| of Immigration, or the Secretary of the
treasury, and cannot be reviewed by
habeas corpus"
The following is the text of the
opinion handed down yesterday in the
United States Circuit Court by Judge
Lacombe in the case of Isabella Con
who arrived in New York on August
"a, and was detained by the immigra-
tion authorities on the ground that she
was an undesirable immigrant and
would become a public charge. The
opinion held that she was not citizen of
the United States, but an alien who is not
entitled to land here without interfer-
ence from the immigration authorities.
The petitioner, an unmarried woman.
was a native of Porto Rico, twenty
years of age, who arrived here from
that island on August "a, 1902. She
was detained at Ellis Island immigrant
station, was duly examined by a board
of special inquiry, land was excluded
I from admission into the United States
upon the ground that she was liable to
become a public charge.
Judge Lacombe says that the only
question open for discussion on this ap.
plieation is whether or not the petition
er was an alien. Upon all other ques-
tions. he holds the decision of the ap-
propriate immigration officers, when
adverse to the admission of the alien, is
made final, un'ess reversed on appeal
to the Secretary of Treasury. (Act of
August Is, 1894 2S Stat. P. 800. Judge
Lacombe notes that while it was true
that he held TO the contrary in re Mar
tonelli, o3 F. r., 437, following in re
Panzara, 81 F. r., 275, the Act of 1894,
was not before him. The Martonelli
case was decided in October, 1894,
before the statutes of that year were
published.
Citing the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution, which provides that
all persons born or naturalized in the
United States and subject to the. juris-
diction thereof, are citizens of the
United States. Judge Lacombe says it is
not disputed tlat the petitioner was by
birth an alien, and there appears no
that she vas ever. naturaliz-
ed under the general laws prescribed |
by Congress regulating the admission
Of aliens to citizenship. The treaty of
Paris, says Judge Laconbe, unlike
earlier treaties which dealt with the
Louisiana and Florida purchases. with +
California and with Alaska, did not
Undertake TO make the native-born in
labitants of Porto Rico citizens Of the
United States.
It expressly provided he says, that
the civil rights and political status Of
he native inhabitants Of the Territories
hereby ceded to the United States shall
De determined By the Congress. In
conformity with this provision of the
reaty, the court points out, it was prov
ded in the act Of 1850 Chap. IoI,
ec.
eIhat all inhabitants continuing to
eside therein who were Spanish sub
ects on the nth day Of April, 1900, and
hen resided in Porto Rico, and their
hildren born subsequent thereto, shall
,e deemed and held to be citizens of
PORTO Rico, aud. as such. entitled to The
protection of the United States 1excep-
ing such as had preserved their al
sgiance to Spain. and they, togetherI
nth such citizens Of the United States
s may reside in Porto Rico, shall con-