Deportation Hearing for Local Chinese Resident
A local Chinese man faces a hearing on his immigration status after authorities uncover a past conviction.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Chew Bow, a Chinese resident, was arrested by Inspector Schuyler and brought before Commissioner Emery on charges of being illegally in the United States. Despite possessing a certificate, authorities allege he is not entitled to it. Inspector Schuyler traveled to Victoria to investigate and discovered that Chew Bow had been convicted of larceny in October of the previous year and sentenced to two months in jail. A witness identified the man as a former cook. The law requires that a Chinese laborer must have lived in the country continuously to maintain residency rights. The hearing was adjourned until Monday.
“The law requires that a Chinese laborer shall have been twelve years in the country continuously in order to be entitled to a certificate.”
This account reflects the systematic state-sponsored exclusion and surveillance of Chinese residents in the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, a legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act that fundamentally shaped the demographics and politics of early Seattle.
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