Record Group 85 Immigration and Naturalization Service Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 2 COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION, WASHINGTON, D.C ........................................................ 4 SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT OFFICE ........................................................................................ 12 ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS ................................................................................................. 12 CASE FILES FOR INDIVIDUALS, BUSINESSES, AND RELATED RECORDS .................................... 13 SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT RECORDS AVAILABLE AS NARA MICROFILM PUBLICATIONS ......... 31 RECORDS OF SUB-OFFICES OF THE SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ............................................... 32 FRESNO, CA, SUB-OFFICE .................................................................................................. 32 HONOLULU, HI, SUB-OFFICE .............................................................................................. 32 OAKLAND, CA, SUB-OFFICE ............................................................................................... 32 RENO, NV, SUB-OFFICE ..................................................................................................... 32 SACRAMENTO, CA, SUB-OFFICE ......................................................................................... 33 SALT LAKE CITY, UT, SUB-OFFICE ....................................................................................... 33 STOCKTON, CA, SUB-OFFICE .............................................................................................. 33 SALINAS, CA, SUB-OFFICE .................................................................................................. 34 RECORDS OF THE NATURALIZATION EXAMINER ................................................................... 35 U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES, DISTRICT 23, SAN FRANCISCO (RG 566) ...... 36 ALIEN CASE FILES, 1944-2009 ................................................................................................ 36 APPENDIX A: SUMMARY OF SAN FRANCISCO CASE FILE NUMBERS ....................................... 38 THE “12,000” SERIES ............................................................................................................ 39 APPENDIX B: CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT OF 1882 ................................................................... 43 APPENDIX C: SPELLING CHINESE NAMES .............................................................................. 48 National Archives at San Francisco Leo J. Ryan Memorial Federal Building 1000 Commodore Drive, San Bruno, California 94066-2350 [email protected] Introduction The Office of Superintendent of Immigration was established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of March 3, 1891. The Act of March 2, 1895 designated the Office as the Bureau of Immigration with responsibility for administering the alien contract-labor laws. The Superintendent of Immigration was re-designated as the Commissioner-General of Immigration at that time. The Bureau of Immigration became part of the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903 and in 1906 was designated the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization with the addition of functions relating to naturalization. In 1913, it was transferred to the Department of Labor as two separate Bureaus of Immigration and of Naturalization, which were reunited by Executive order on June 10, 1933, to form the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The INS became part of the Department of Justice in 1940. The INS was abolished in 2003 and its functions were transferred to the newly-created Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Immigration and naturalization functions are now handled by DHS’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Deportation and related immigration law enforcement actions are handled by DHS’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One of the most noted functions of the INS during the first half of the Twentieth Century was enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Acts. The first Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882 and the U. S. Treasury Department’s Customs Service, though Collectors of Customs at each port, enforced the law during the remainder of the century. The U. S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Immigration, headed by the Commissioner-General of Immigration, became responsible for administration of the Chinese Exclusion Acts under the Act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat. 588, 611). The Bureau of Immigration’s U. S. Immigration Service, Chinese Bureau was established at this time to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act. Collectors of Customs maintained final approval over local Chinese Bureau investigative recommendations at U.S. ports. The Commissioner-General of Immigration held no jurisdiction over Chinese immigration prior to June 6, 1900. The Collectors of Customs were finally eliminated from any Chinese Exclusion Act jurisdiction when the Bureau of Immigration, and its field operations at U. S. ports, became part of the newly-created Department of Commerce and Labor on July 1, 1903 – the effective date of the Act of February 14, 1903 (32 Stat. 825). Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act remained somewhat separate from the enforcement of other immigration laws at the field office level until 1909 when 23 immigration districts were established and “Chinese Inspector” and “Immigrant Inspector” positions were gradually merged over the next few years. From 1903 to 1909, the “Chinese Inspector-in-Charge” at local ports generally made final decisions in Chinese Exclusion Act cases. Later the local Commissioners of Immigration (later known as District Directors) generally made final decisions in Chinese Exclusion Act cases. This Chinese Exclusion bureaucracy continued until the Chinese Exclusion Acts were repealed in 1943. During the Chinese Exclusion Era, Customs and INS officials zealously enforced provisions of the Chinese Exclusion Acts and an enormous volume of individual case files resulted. The surviving case files from San Francisco and Hawaii amount to over 2000 cubic feet RW-SB RG 85 - Immigration and Naturalization Service, San Francisco District Revised 11/2018 Page 2 of 48 – over 100,000 individual case files and over 100,000 ancillary identity and citizenship certificates. For related records concerning enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, see Record Group 21, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of California and District of Hawaii (habeas corpus case files for individuals), and RG 36, San Francisco District (correspondence and general administrative records). This guide is more than a description of the National Archives at San Francisco holdings in that it also documents many sought-after records that no longer exist. Records now considered priceless by historians, social scientists, and genealogists were thought by some to have little or no future value fifty years ago. Many very early records from INS District Offices throughout the United States were destroyed in the 1940s and 1950s by the INS with the approval of the National Archives and the U.S. Congress. These records included documents of a routine administrative nature as well as very large volume of correspondence concerning the enforcement of immigration and naturalization laws at the District Office level. The INS believed at the time, incorrectly, that most District Office administrative records were “summarized or duplicated in substance” in files of the Central Office. The INS also destroyed many pre-1944 District Office case files concerning individual immigrants, deportees, and naturalization petitioners (i.e. pre-A File case files) on the assumption that the local files were of temporary value and essentially duplicated by Central Office records. This was partly true but only in the relatively small number of cases where adverse District Office immigration decisions were administratively appealed and in deportation cases after 1912. RW-SB RG 85 - Immigration and Naturalization Service, San Francisco District Revised 11/2018 Page 3 of 48 Commissioner of Immigration, Washington, D.C DUPLICATE CERTIFICATES OF IDENTITY, 1908-1943 Extent: 29.61 cu. ft. HMS: 85-0005 NAID: 1560125 Accession: 085-95-002 Transfer: 085-60A-0389 Boxes: 1-88 (87 IND-4; 1 LTA-D) Location: B-025-1-004-01 to -005-03 (old WNRC box #37-89) Arranged in two groups: 1. “Hawaiian Certificates” (green cards) and 2. “Chinese Certificates” (red cards). Thereunder the certificates are arranged numerically by the number embossed on the reverse of each. Most of the Chinese Certificates (red cards) below card number 14,401 are missing and presumed destroyed. Some cards numbered above 14,401 show signs of smoke and heat damage. The Chinese Certificates (red cards) were issued by INS Districts throughout the United States Offices to Chinese nationals and Chinese Americans. The San Francisco District issued a majority of the red cards, but many were issued by District Offices in New York, Boston, and other cities. Certificates of Identity (red cards) were issued from 1909 until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Laws (December 17, 1943) to both U.S. citizens and resident aliens upon their admission to the United States, whether or not admitted for permanent residence. They were issued only upon application at the original port of entry. The certificates were made up in book form and in triplicate. The original copy