Wong Wing v. United States

Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228 (1896), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court found that the 5th and 6th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution forbid the imprisonment at hard labor without a jury trial for non citizens convicted of illegal entry to or presence in the United States.

Wong Wing v. United States
Argued April 1–2, 1896
Decided May 18, 1896
Full case nameWong Wing v. United States
Citations163 U.S. 228 (more)
16 S. Ct. 977; 41 L. Ed. 140; 1896 U.S. LEXIS 2260
Court membership
Chief Justice
Melville Fuller
Associate Justices
Stephen J. Field · John M. Harlan
Horace Gray · David J. Brewer
Henry B. Brown · George Shiras Jr.
Edward D. White · Rufus W. Peckham
Case opinions
MajorityShiras, joined by Harlan, Gray, Brown, White, Peckham
Concur/dissentField
Brewer took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

In 1892, a federal immigration judge sentenced four men; Wong Wing, Lee Poy, Lee You Tong, and Chan Wah Dong to 60 days of imprisonment and hard labor at the Detroit House of Corrections, followed by deportation. The men were convicted of unlawful residence under the Geary Act, an extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act.[1] The men's lawyer, Frank H. Canfield, appealed the imprisonment portion of their sentence until the case reached the Supreme Court. The Court found that immigration courts could not punitively detain non-citizens, rather that non-citizens can be detained to prevent further crimes prior to deportation.[2] Immigration detention was found to be "not imprisonment in the legal sense"[3][4]

This case established that non-citizens subject to criminal proceedings are entitled to the same constitutional protections available to citizens. The ruling was issued on the same day as the court upheld racial segregation laws in its infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

See also

References
  1. Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228 (1896).
  2. Chelgren, Whitney (2011-06-01). "Preventive Detention Distorted: Why It Is Unconstitutional to Detain Immigrants Without Procedural Protections". Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. 44 (4): 1477.
  3. "Wong Wing v. United States". Oyez.org. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
  4. Kelly Lytle Hernandez, City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los Angeles, 1771 - 1965, The University of north Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2017, Chapter 3: "Not Imprisonment in a Legal Sense"


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