Howard Nee Hao Wong v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

Petitioner, an alien, seeks review of a final order of the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissing petitioner’s appeal from a decision of an immigration judge, finding him deportable. The major question presented is whether due process requires that deportation proceedings must be postponed until the alien is competent to participate intelligently in the proceedings. We conclude that it does not; that the proceedings conducted in this case were consistent with due process. We therefore affirm the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Petitioner is an unmarried male citizen of China, last a resident of Hong Kong, aged 36 at the time of his hearing in 1974. He gained entry to this country in 1958 at Tacoma, Washington, as a nonimmigrant student and has continuously remained in the United States since that date.

During petitioner’s stay in the United States he has been hospitalized for mental disturbance on numerous occasions in both California and Minnesota. Petitioner, presently dependent upon public assistance, resides in a community care center in San Francisco. Petitioner’s state appointed conservator testified, and petitioner’s counsel does not dispute, that…