George Shiras, Jr.

“ We cannot, however, yield to the earnest contention made in behalf of inoffensive Chinese persons who seek to come within the limits of the United States and subject themselves to their jurisdiction, by modifying or relaxing, by judicial construction, the severity of the statutes under consideration. ”

“ The decision of the collector of customs not being conclusive as to the right of the petitioner to enter the United States, much less as to his right to remain therein, we are brought to consider the errors assigned to the acts of the commissioner in the proceedings before him. ”

“ And any Chinese person found unlawfully within the United States shall be caused to be removed therefrom to the country from whence he came.' Such required certificate in regard to persons not laborers, as specified in the 6th section of the said amended act, was to be obtained from the Chinese government by every Chinese person, other than a laborer, who was about to come to the United States, and was for the purpose of identifying the person and evidencing the permission of the government for his departure. ”

“ It is but a method of enforcing the return to his own country of an alien who has not complied with the conditions upon the performance of which the government of the nation, acting within its constitutional authority, and through the proper departments, has determined that his continuing to reside here shall depend. ”

“ It is simply the ascertainment, by appropriate and lawful means, of the fact whether the conditions exist upon which Congress has enacted that an alien of this class may remain within the country. The order of deportation is not a punishment for crime. ”

“ Roberts, 13 How. 476, 14 L. ed. 230; Cliquot's Champagne, 3 Wall. 143, sub nom. 125 Baskets of Champagne v. United States, 18 L. ed. 120; Ex parte Fisk, 113 U.S. 721, 28 L. ed. 1120, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 124; Holmes v. Hunt, 122 Mass. ”