The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-01-16
SARGENT ON
EXCLUSION LAWS
COMMISSIONER or IMMIGRATION
DISCUSSES THE ENFORCEMENT
or LAW REGARDING CHINESE.

SAN FRANCISCO. Jan. 1-Commis.
sioner-General of immigration Frank
+. Sargent, in his annual report, states
that owing to the sentiment prevailing
in some parts of the country IL has
been deemed inadvisabe for the bu-
roau to enforce the Chinese exclusion
act as it was passed
Apparently he does not believe with
President Roosevelt that the immigra-
ton officials are unusually oHicious in
enforcing the law. After intimaung
that the law is a dead letter he says:
Present conditions cannot be al
lowed to continue indefinitely with any
credit to our Government If the ex-
cusion laws, as they now stand upon
the statute books are just and reason
able they should be enforced in all
of their provisions; If they are not
just and reasonable and are not there
fore to be enforced I'm detail, they
should be repealed"
After stating that out of 500 arrests
made under the exclusion law, 1853
were made here in the West near the
Mexican border, Commissioner-Gen-
eral Sargent says:
1T has not been considered eXpedi-
! ent to make arrests in the interior,
and especially in the Eastern section.
! Washington and Baltimore are per-
haps typical of this condition. During
! the year not even one arrest has been
made in said cities, although the bu-
reau ventures the opinion, upon the
basis of the impression of its officers
who make Investigations of returning
merchant and laborer cases, that there
are in each city at least hundred
Chinese who have no lawful right to
be and remain in the United States.
Just so long as public sentiment is
such in these sections as to interfere
with active operations in the making
of arrests. just so long will the num-
Der of unlawfully resident Chinese
continue to increase; and in the face
of such q situation it is hardly con-
sistent to continue to point to the good
work being done at the regular ports
of entry in preventing the landing OF
those not entitled because for every
one thus turned back several cross the
borders, and the surreptitioLs and de-
ceitful method of entering is thus
placed at a premium.
THE only remedy for this lies in
general, aggressive resort to the pro
vision of law relating to the expulsion
from the country of Chinese who have
no lawful right to remain; but the
moment that is attempted vigorous
and extensive protest will be register
ed. as was done a few years ago when
an effort was made to ascertain, quiet
" and unostentatiously, by means Of
a census, how many Chinese were re-
siding in the various districts and the
nature of the credentials held by each
of them.
"The Chinese, particularly those o.
the unlawfully resident class, cultivate
the friendship of their white neigh
bors and there is apparently never
any difficulty in enlisting hosts OF IN
fuential citizens in their defens'
whenever a Government official indl
Gates any intention to resort to war
T. rant of arrest"
In spite of the increased number o
persons who apply for readmission u
the United States as native born
Sargent says:
D 1T Is a well-known fact, and capa
BILE of easy demonstration, that tn
D number of Chinese who have alread
claimed birth in the United States Is
large multiple of the number of chill
dren that, as a physical possibility
could ever possibly have been born o
the entire female Chinese population
, of the United States tsince the frs
= Chinese woman landed on the Paciti
coast.
"A curious circumstance in this con
!, nection is the fact that almost invari
ably a Chinaman asserting the CLAIM
= of American birth states that he is tn
8 only child of his alleged parents.
a ut must be remembered that tn
moment a person of the Chinese rae
is invested with American citizenship
: he acquires all the privileges that tn
term implies, among others the RICH
to bring his wife and children to thi
country-and therein lies the chic
, danger.
with regard to the cases of som
of the Chinese women admitted during
1906 as the wives of Chinese-Ameri
can citizens, it has been found tina
{ they were, almost Immediately afte
entry, sold at from $4,000 to $500
apiece and placed in disordery house
, thus verifying the suspicious enter
, tanned at the time of their examina
4 ton"
THE MARKET BUILDING.
For the temporary use of the Mar
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