Lee Choy v. United States

This is an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the Territory of Hawaii ordering the appellant,. Lee Choy, alias Lee Uek Kwong, to be deported to the republic of China.

• Appellant is a Chinese person who entered the territory of Hawaii on June 12, 1923. He obtained admission on the ground that he was a native-born citizen of Hawaii who had left the said territory on July 27, 1900, on the steamship Rio de Janeiro with his mother, Mrs. Ching Shee, a brother, and a sister. On September 17,1923, a certificate of identity; signed by Richard L. Halsey, at that time chief immigration official in the territory, was issued to appellant.

On June 2, 1927, appellánt was examined by the immigration authorities of Hawaii regarding his right tó be in the United States. On that day, George A. Erbs, an immigration inspector, met appellant at the Aala Market and asked him for his certificate of identity. Appellant did not have it with him, whereupon Inspector Erbs accompanied him to his home, where appellant gave the certificate to the inspector who kept it. Thereafter, appellant was arrested and charged with obtaining admission into the United States by false and…