Citations
- 54 F. Supp. 679
Full opinion text
VOGEL, District Judge.
This is a habeas corpus proceeding instituted by George Umecker against I. P. McCoy, Officer in Charge of the Naturalization and Immigration Service of the United States at Fort Lincoln, Burleigh County, North Dakota. The respondent holds Umecker in custody as an alien enemy by virtue of an order of the United States Attorney General. The order of the Attorney General, which is dated January 31, 1942, recites that the petitioner, George Umecker, is
“* * * a citizen of Germany, over the age of fourteen years, is within the United States and not a naturalized citizen thereof and has heretofore been apprehended as being potentially dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States, and;
“Whereas, the Alien Enemy Hearing Board has recommended that said alien enemy be interned; Now, Therefore, upon consideration of the evidence before me,
“It Is Ordered that said alien enemy be interned.”
At the hearing on the petition the Assistant United States District Attorney, who represented the respondent, stated to this court that the only question involved was whether or not the petitioner was a “native” of a country with which we are now at war. The respondent, accordingly, does not seek detention of the petitioner on the basis of any alleged German citizenship, but solely upon the basis that he is a “native” of Germany. The matter was tried on that basis, and with that being the only question involved.
The Alien Enemy Act, 50 U.S.C.A. § 21, by virtue of which the respondent seeks continued detention of the petitioner, provides that:
“* * * all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies.”
The undisputed facts necessary to a determination of whether or not the petitioner is a native within the purview of the statute involved are as follows: George Umeclcer, the petitioner herein, was born in 1893 in Wickersheim, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, which shall hereafter be referred to as Alsace, and which was at the time of petitioner’s birth a part of Germany. He was born of French ancestry. His father was born in 1860 and his mother in 1861 in Alsace. At the time of their, the parents’, birth, Alsace was a part of France. Subsequent to their birth, and in 1871, Alsace was ceded to Germany. It remained a part