Denied reentry to the United States upon his return from an 1894 visit to China, San Francisco–born Wong Kim Ark was detained by the collector of customs in San Francisco. The U.S. attorney argued that Mr. Wong was a citizen of China because his parents were born in China. However the U.S. District Court determined that Wong Kim Ark “is a citizen of the United States within the meaning of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.”
The Departure Statement of Wong Kim Ark is a part of America’s 100 Docs, an initiative of the National Archives Foundation in partnership with More Perfect that invites the American public to vote on 100 notable documents from the holdings of the National Archives. Visit 100docs.vote today.
