The 'Endless' Deportation Loop in 1889 Seattle
A federal judge struggles with a legal absurdity where Chinese laborers, ordered out of the country, find themselves trapped in a cycle of failed deportations and re-arrests.
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.
The United States grand jury and the district court have been busy with the case of the nineteen Chinamen who were ordered deported by Judge Hanford. These men have been under United States surveillance since July 2, 1888, when they were arrested for being unlawfully in the United States. They were convicted of this and sent to jail for six months. When they were released, they were taken to Victoria on writs of deportation, but they were not allowed to land because of the $500 head tax. They were left on the boat and returned to this country. They were again arrested, and some were deported; but the order could not be carried into execution, as they were sent to local jails. At this time, they were again indicted for being unlawfully in the country. Judge Hanford was distressed in his opinion. He said it was not the intention of the exclusion acts to keep Chinese out of the country and then, once they had landed, to hold them here as permanent prisoners. The Chinamen were, in effect, could not get out of the country if they chose and could not get out of jail if they committed no other crime.
“It was not the intention of the exclusion acts to keep Chinese out of the country and then... to hold them here as permanent prisoners.”
This 1889 report captures the early, cruel machinery of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Today, this resonates with modern debates regarding the legal 'limbo' faced by asylum seekers and detainees, where bureaucratic failures turn human beings into permanent prisoners of the state.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.