Wong Kim Ark v. the United States

Wong Kim Ark

            Wong Kim Ark was a young man that was born in San Francisco, by his parents Wong Si Pi and Wee Lee.  Although his parents were immigrants from China, he was a natural born U.S. citizen granting him automatic U.S. citizenship under the fourteenth amendment of United States Constitution, which states the following: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.  During the year of 1890, Wong Kim Ark’s parents decided to go back to China and reside there. Following their choice, during the same year Wong Kim Ark decided to visit China with intentions of returning.  The same year Wong Kim returned and was granted entry since he was proclaimed a U.S. citizen since birth.  A few years later Wong Kim Ark decided to make another trip back to China, still having the intentions of coming back to United States. So he embarked on his journey, but when we returned he was denied entry into the United States on the basis of the Chinese Exclusion Act. 

Wong Kim Ark's Signature

The Chinese Exclusion Act denied entry to any Chinese immigrant that wasn’t already a U.S. citizen, and prompted them to obtain permission from the Chinese government to gain re-entry into the United States.  Although Wong Kim Ark was born in the United States, his citizenship was put into question because he was born to two individuals that were subjects of the emperor of China, which in turn made Wong Kim Ark a subject of the emperor of China.  The situation went to the Supreme Court and became known as Wong Kim Ark v. the United States. In the case the district attorney argued that Wong Kim Ark was in fact not a U.S. citizen and asked for a ruling for Wong Kim to be deported back to China. In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wong Kim Ark and he regained entry into the United States. The ruling of this came became a landmark for cases concerning citizenship and was even cited in cases that followed such as Perkins v. Elg and Afroyim v. Rusk.  Even though this Supreme court ruling took place 116 years ago, it still is under attack today from anti-immigration organizations which feel as if the court’s ruling was wrong.

Posted by Joshua Lasky