Biography
Ponce M. Torres was an executive-board member of the Filipino cannery workers’ union, later ILWU Local 37. Immigration agents jailed him in August 1949 and arrested him again during the 1951 McCarran Act sweeps. They arrested him a third time at an Alaska cannery in July 1951 on an accusation that he had falsely claimed United States citizenship; he was briefly jailed and released under $1,000 bail. A federal jury acquitted him of the false-claim charge in October 1951. His deportation order was ultimately defeated with the other Local 37 cases. Exact custody endpoints have not been located.
