The Alien Immigration Act of February 20, 1907, c. 1134, 3, 34
Stat. 898, 908, applies to Chinese laborers illegally coming to
this country notwithstanding the special acts relating to the
exclusion of Chinese.
To allow a subsequent general act its literal effect does not
repeal, alter, or amend an earlier special law when the later law
expressly provides that it shall not have that effect.
The omission from a later act of a clause contained in an
earlier act on the same subject, excluding certain classes from its
operation
Page 223 U. S. 68
and inserting a provision applicable to such classes, signifies
that Congress intended to include that class in the operation of
the later act notwithstanding the existence of other special
legislation in regard thereto.
181 F. 313 reversed.
The facts, which involve the construction of § 36 of the Alien
Immigration Act of 1907, are stated in the opinion.
Page 223 U. S. 69
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a writ of habeas corpus. It was dismissed by the
district court, 176 Fed 933, but was sustained by the circuit court
of appeals, which ordered the parties concerned to be discharged
from custody. 181 F. 313. The parties are Chinamen who entered the
United States surreptitiously, in a manner prohibited by the
immigration act of February 20, 1907, c. 1134, § 36, 34 Stat. 898,
908, and the rules made in pursuance of the same, if applicable to
Chinese. They were arrested
in transitu and ordered by the
Secretary of Commerce and Labor to be deported. §§ 20, 21. But, as
it transpired in the evidence that they were laborers, the circuit
court of appeals held that they could be dealt with only under the
Chinese exclusion acts of earlier date. Those acts make it unlawful
for any Chinese laborer to come from any foreign place into the
United States, or, having so come, to remain there, and provide a
different procedure for removing them. Hence, it was concluded that
such persons were tacitly excepted from the general provisions of
the immigration act, although broad enough to include them, and
although of later date.
We are of opinion that the circuit court of appeals made a
mistaken use of its principles of interpretation. By the language
of the act, any alien that enters the country unlawfully may be
summarily deported by order of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor
at any time within three years. It seems to us unwarranted to
except the Chinese from this liability because there is an earlier
more cumbrous proceeding which this partially overlaps. The
existence of the earlier laws only indicates the special solicitude
of the government to limit the entrance of Chinese. It is the very
reverse of a reason for denying to the government a better remedy
against them alone of all the world, now that one has been created
in general terms.
Page 223 U. S. 70
To allow the immigration act its literal effect does not repeal,
alter, or amend the laws relating to the Chinese, as it is provided
that it shall not, in § 43. The present act does not contain the
clause found in the previous immigration act of March 3, 1893, 27
Stat. 569, c. 206, that it shall not apply to Chinese persons, and,
on the other hand, as it requires deportation to the trans-Pacific
ports from which such aliens embarked for the United States. § 35,
it is rather hard to say that it has not the Chinese specially in
mind.
Judgment reversed.
