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8 

UNITED STATES v. HANSEN 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

again, the particulars matter.  And the history of this par-
ticular statute  only  underscores  that  it cannot  be  read  as 
the majority wishes.  At every turn, Congress has sought to 
expand the reach of this criminal law, including by deleting 
the terms and mens rea requirement that the majority at-
tempts to read back into the statute. 

1 
  The  history  of  the  encouragement  provision  is  a  tale  of 
expansion.  Up first was an 1885 law focused specifically on 
contract labor.  Ch. 164, 23 Stat. 332.  It made “knowingly 
assisting, encouraging or soliciting the migration or impor-
tation of ” a noncitizen into the United States “to perform 
labor or service of any kind under contract or agreement” 
unlawful.  §3, id., at 333.  Congress revised this prohibition 
in 1917, to add “induce.”  §5, 39 Stat. 879.  Thus, as of the 
early 20th century, it was a misdemeanor “to induce, assist, 
encourage, or solicit . . . the importation or migration of any 
contract laborer,” or to attempt to do the same.  Ibid. 
  Significantly for present purposes, in 1952, Congress de-
leted  the  statute’s  references  to  solicitation  and  assis-
tance—leaving “encourages” and “induces” to stand alone.  
66 Stat. 229.  What is more, Congress expanded the prohi-
bition to all unlawful entry, not merely contract labor.  Ibid.  
And  it  also  ratcheted  up  the  punishment.    Ibid.    So 
amended, the statute made it a felony to “willfully or know-
ingly encourag[e] or induc[e], or attemp[t] to encourage or 
induce,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  the  entry  into  the 
United  States”  of  any  noncitizen  who  had  not  been  “duly 
admitted” or who was not “lawfully entitled to enter or re-
side within the United States.”  Ibid. 
  Congress  enacted  the  current  version  of  the  encourage-
ment provision in 1986.  It removed the mens rea require-
ment  relating  to  the  encouragement  or  inducement  ele-
ment—excising  from  the  statute  that  a  violator  must 
“willfully or knowingly” encourage or induce a noncitizen to