The Case of Ah Sam: A Seattle Commissioner Draws a Line Against Double Punishment
Federal Commissioner Emory ordered Ah Sam released after he had served six months for smuggling, ruling that deportation for the same offense would be unconstitutional double punishment—a rare limit on Chinese exclusion enforcement.
United States Commissioner Emory yesterday discharged from custody Ah Sam, a Chinese man, who after serving a six months' sentence for smuggling was arraigned for deportation. The commissioner held that when Ah Sam had once been punished he could not then be deported for the same offense; that he had once served all the sentence which the court had imposed and no later proceedings would be constitutional.
“When the Chinaman had once been punished he could not then be deported for the same offense.”
Chinese exclusion laws made immigrants vulnerable to cascading punishments—criminal conviction, then deportation—for the same act. Ah Sam’s case shows a Seattle official drawing a rare due-process line at double punishment. The tension between immigration enforcement and constitutional limits is still with us.
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