HISTORY

Today in Chinese American History - March 28, 1898

Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese immigrant parents. In 1890, they moved back to China. Ark went to visit them that year. He was allowed re-entry to the United States upon his return on the grounds that he was born in the United States. However, a few years later in 1895, Wong Kim Ark went on another visit to China. When he returned to the US, he was denied entry at San Francisco harbor on the grounds that he was not a US citizen. Also, the Chinese Exclusion Act (1880) forbade him from entering the US as an immigrant, because he was of Chinese descent. This act had stated that Chinese were not allowed to come to the United States, and those Chinese who were already on American soil could not become naturalized US citizens.

Thomas Riordan, a lawyer for the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco and the Chinese Six Companies, cited that Ark was born in the United States for the federal district court. The court ordered Wong Kim Ark discharged from custody and the decision was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The case depended on the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment which stated that all those born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the United States’ laws are US citizens. The government stated that because Wong Kim Ark was born of Chinese immigrants, he was subject to the emperor of China, not the United States. But in a six to two decision, the Court decided that a child born of two Chinese nationals present on American soil was an American citizen.

This was a huge legal victory for Asian-Americans during a time of intense anti-Asian sentiments in the country. The Chinese Exclusion Act had passed in Congress due to American alarm over the massive influx of Chinese immigrants. Labor leaders and politicians fueled blame that the Chinese were lowering wage levels. Prior to the case, birthplace was not enough to constitute citizenship. However, the Court decided to acknowledge both citizenship by place of birth (jus soli) and citizenship inherited from parents (jus sanguinis).

Wong Kim Ark’s case has been cited in a few other Supreme Court cases. In 1939, it was cited to decide Perkins v. Elg, where a US born woman had allegedly lost her citizenship when her parents took her back to Sweden as a baby. Wong Kim Ark was also mentioned in the 1967 case Afroyim v. Rug, in which a naturalized US citizen had moved to Israel and participated in an Israeli election. When he tried to apply for a US passport, he was denied. The case decided that a citizen cannot forcibly lose citizenship, US v. Wong Kim Ark had determined that those born in the United States or naturalized citizens retained the rights of a US citizen until they voluntarily let go of them.

More recently, there have been movements in Congress to deny citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants in the US. However, such legislation cannot pass unless the Supreme Court overturns its decision on Wong Kim Ark. Wong Kim Ark is considered a symbolic figure by Asian American activists for fighting racist, xenophobic legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared March 28 “Wong Kim Ark Day” in honor of the one hundred year anniversary of his court decision.