Six Years Away Was Enough to Cost a Man His Claim to America
A Seattle Chinese merchant's brother is ordered deported after a commissioner rules that a long absence in China is proof he never really lived here.
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.
Chin Look, the Chinaman who claims to be a brother of Lee Kee, and just returning to this country after an absence of six years in China, was given a hearing yesterday before Commissioner Kiefer and ordered deported to China. Look's attorney gave notice of an appeal.
Commissioner Kiefer holds that even if he should establish the facts that he was here six years ago and still retains an interest in Lee Kee's store, an absence of six years is prima facie evidence that his domicile was not in the United States, and he would have to be deported.
The cases of the other Chinese arrested Thursday while on their way out to pick hops did not come up yesterday.
“An absence of six years is prima facie evidence that his domicile was not in the United States, and he would have to be deported.”
Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, the burden fell on Chinese residents to prove, again and again, that they truly belonged here — a six-year visit home to family was enough to erase a man's domicile in the eyes of the law. The hop fields around Puget Sound depended on Chinese labor even as the government criminalised the people doing the picking. The same presumption, that long absence or missing paperwork proves you are not really from here, still structures deportation hearings today.
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