Wong Sun Fay v. United States

This is an appeal from an order denying an application for a writ of habeas corpus.

The appellant entered the United States at Seattle, Wash., on June 16, 1923, and was admitted on a section 6 merchants’ certificate. After his admission he proceeded to Helena, Mont., and acquired an interest in a Chinese store, where he remained for about four months. He then went to Chinook, Mont., to take over a laundry owned by the firm of which he was a member. He conducted the laundry until the same was sold about a year later, performing all manual labor himself. After the sale he remained for a few days to instruct the purchaser in the business, and was arrested at Havre, while returning to Helena, upon a telegraphic warrant from the Assistant Secretary of Labor. The warrant recited that the appellant was found “within the United States in violation of section 6, Chinese Exclusion Act of July 5, 1884 [Comp. St. § 4293], having secured admission on a certificate issued under said section, but having become a laborer since admission as merchant.”

Appellant was accorded a hearing before an immigrant inspector, and upon such hearing the inspector found that the charges contained in the…