Court Opinion

ID: 8851536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 17:15:01.707999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:05:30.911222
License: Public Domain

LACOMBE, Circuit Judge.
The relator, a Chinese person, who was formerly a resident of this country, contends that upon facts which he offers to prove he is entitled to entry. This court cannot, however, go into that question. In the sundry civil appropriation act of August 18,1894, there is found this paragraph:
“In every case where an alien is excluded from admission into the 13 aited States under any law or treaty now existing or hereafter made, the decision of the appropriate immigration or customs officers, if adverse to the admission of such alien, shall be final, unless reversed on appeal to the secretary of the treasury.”
Under the decision of the supreme court in Pong Yue Ting v. U. S., 149 U. S. 698, 13 Sup. Ct. 1016, the power of congress to confide such decision exclusively to executive officers must be accepted by this court. The act itself leaves nothing for this court to inquire into, save only whether relator is an “alien,” which is not disputed, and whether the collector has “made a decision.” On this latter point, the return, in which he states that he has decided adversely to admission, is conclusive. Even if he had not so decided when the writ was applied for, the signing of such a return is itself a decision. Relator remanded.