Two Chinese Men Walk Free After a 'Hot and Bitter' Immigration Trial
Arrested by a federal inspector and tried since Saturday, Ah Get and Lou Kwong were released in Olympia after cross-examination exposed the government's case as legally empty.
The two Chinese men, Ah Get and Lou Kwong, who were arrested by United States Inspector McClelland, were discharged by the United States commissioner last night, after being on trial since Saturday morning. The prosecution made a hot and bitter fight to convict the accused of being illegally in the country, but the rigid cross-examination of the witnesses by the attorneys, Lacey and Forrest, soon developed the fact to the court that there was no legal evidence on which to hold the accused.
“The prosecution made a hot and bitter fight to convict the accused of being illegally in the country, but the rigid cross-examination of the witnesses by the attorneys, Lacey and Forrest, soon developed the fact to the court that there was no legal evidence on which to hold the accused.”
Chinese Exclusion Act enforcement turned ordinary immigration hearings into high-stakes contests over liberty in Puget Sound. The defense win here shows how counsel and cross-examination could resist federal deportation power—arguments over paperwork, belonging, and who gets to stay that still echo in immigration court today.
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