Deported Despite the Evidence
Two Chinese merchants who proved they were lawful Portland residents are ordered out of the country, a federal judge siding with the immigration commissioner.
TACOMA, May 31. — [Special.] — Wong Art and Wong Pee, two Chinamen arrested at Castle City recently on the charge of being illegally in this country, were ordered deported today by Judge Hanford. A mass of testimony was produced to show that the Chinamen were resident merchants of Portland, but the court sustained the decision of Commissioner Olney, of Olympia, and ordered them deported. They were arrested last February.
“A mass of testimony was produced to show that the Chinamen were resident merchants of Portland, but the court sustained the decision of Commissioner Olney, of Olympia, and ordered them deported.”
Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, even documented, law-abiding merchants could be ordered deported, and courts routinely deferred to the immigration commissioner over the evidence. Two Portland shopkeepers were sent away on a legal technicality — a reminder that deportation policy has always fallen hardest on people whose lives were already established here.
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