United States v. Kwai Tim Tom

The United States appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court of Hawaii admitting Kwai to citizenship under 8 U.S.C.A. § 711 as an alien in Hawaii more than two years there married to an American citizen, facts not questioned here.

The ground of the Government’s appeal is that Kwai, an alien Chinese, is not a person lawfully admitted to permanent residence in the United States and hence under the provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 729 (c) cannot Ibe naturalized.

The question here is whether Kwai’s father at the time of Kwai’s entry into the United States was an alien merchant, in the United States pursuant to Article II of the Treaty of 1880 with China, providing :

Under the decision in United States v. Gue Lim, 176 U.S. 459 , 20 S.Ct. 415, 416 , 44 L.Ed. 544 , this article of the treaty gave to one who proved she was the wife of a Chinese merchant engaged in a mercantile business'in Seattle, Washington, for “over a year” the right to enter as such wife. So also are the children of a Chinese merchant so engaged in business in the United States. The Supreme Court is not concerned with the occupation, of the fathers prior to the time they became merchants. The status of…