This is a photograph of
Wong Kim Ark from a Federal immigration investigation case conducted under the Chinese Exclusion Acts (1882–1943). The administrative decision was appealed into federal courts, and the habeas corpus case for Wong Kim Ark gained great significance in Constitutional matters (especially due process) and immigration law, as well as regarding citizenship.
Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873. In 1894 Wong went to China for a visit. He returned to the United States in August 1895, but was denied entry by the San Francisco Collector of Customs on the claim that, although born at 751 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, Wong was not a citizen.
Wong appealed for judicial review of this decision by executive branch immigration officials. From the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, his case went through the Circuit Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court. The precedent-setting final ruling was that U.S.-born descendants of immigrants could not be denied U.S. citizenship, regardless of their ethnicity or the nationality of their ancestors. The centennial of the Wong Kim Ark decision was celebrated in 1998 by groups including the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater (San Francisco) Bay Area.
This primary source comes from the Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
National Archives Identifier:
296479Full Citation: Identification Photograph on Affidavit 'In the Matter of Wong Kim Ark, Native Born Citizen of the United States' Filed with the Immigration Service in San Francisco Prior to His May 19 Departure on th; 5/19/1904; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/id-photo-wong-kim-ark, May 19, 2024]