Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/374/449/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 00:53:06+00:00

Document:
Respondent is an alien who was admitted to this country for permanent residence in 1952 and has been here continuously since, except for a visit of "about a couple hours" duration to Ensenada, Mexico, in 1956. After administrative proceedings, he was ordered deported on the ground that, at the time of his return in 1956, he was "afflicted with psychopathic personality" within the meaning of § 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and, therefore, was excludable under 241(a)(1). The District Court sustained the deportation order, but the Court of Appeals set it aside on the ground that, as applied to respondent, § 212(a)(4) was unconstitutionally vague.
1. This Court ought not to pass on the constitutionality of § 212(a)(4), as applied to respondent, unless such adjudication is unavoidable, and there is a threshold question as to whether respondent's return to this country from his afternoon trip to Mexico in 1956 constituted an "entry" within the meaning of § 101(a)(13) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, so as to subject him to deportation for a condition existing at that time, but not at the time of his original admission before the 1952 Act became effective. Pp. 374 U. S. 451-452.
2. It would be inconsistent with the general ameliorative purpose of Congress in enacting § 101(a)(13) to hold that an innocent, casual and brief excursion by a resident alien outside this country's borders was "intended" as a departure disruptive of his resident alien status, so as to subject him to the consequences of an "entry" into the country on his return. Pp. 374 U. S. 452-462.
Mexico in 1956, the judgment below is vacated, and the case is remanded for further consideration of the application of that section in the light of this opinion. Pp. 374 U. S. 462-463.
302 F.2d 652, judgment vacated and case remanded.
at the time of his 1956 return as an alien "afflicted with psychopathic personality," § 212(a)(4), 66 Stat. 182, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(4), by reason of the fact that he was a homosexual. Deportation was ordered on this ground and Fleuti's appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals was dismissed, whereupon he brought the present action for declaratory judgment and review of the administrative action. It was stipulated that among the issues to be litigated was the question whether § 212(a)(4) is "unconstitutional as being vague and ambiguous." The trial court rejected respondent's contentions in this regard and in general, and granted the Government's motion for summary judgment. On appeal, however, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit set aside the deportation order and enjoined its enforcement, holding that, as applied to Fleuti, § 212(a)(4) was unconstitutionally vague in that homosexuality was not sufficiently encompassed within the term "psychopathic personality." 302 F.2d 652.
The Government petitioned this Court for certiorari, which we granted in order to consider the constitutionality of § 212(a)(4) as applied to respondent Fleuti. 371 U.S. 859. Upon consideration of the case, however, and in accordance with the long established principle that "we ought not to pass on questions of constitutionality . . . unless such adjudication is unavoidable," Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. McLaughlin, 323 U. S. 101, 323 U. S. 105; see also Alma Motor Co. v. Timken-Detroit Axle Co., 329 U. S. 129; Neese v. Southern R. Co., 350 U. S. 77; Mackey v. Mendoza-Martinez, 362 U. S. 384; we have concluded that there is a threshold issue of statutory interpretation in the case, the existence of which obviates decision here as to whether § 212(a)(4) is constitutional as applied to respondent.
"The term 'entry' means any coming of an alien into the United States from a foreign port or place or from an outlying possession, whether voluntarily or otherwise, except that an alien having a lawful permanent residence in the United States shall not be regarded as making an entry into the United States for the purposes of the immigration laws if the alien proves to the satisfaction of the Attorney General that his departure to a foreign port or place or to an outlying possession was not intended or reasonably to be expected by him. or his presence in a foreign port or place or in an outlying possession was not voluntary: Provided, That no person whose departure from the United States was occasioned by deportation proceedings, extradition, or other legal process shall be held to be entitled to such exception."
"the word 'entry' . . . includes any coming of an alien from a foreign country into the United States, whether such coming be the first or any subsequent one."
"the alien would be subjected without means of protecting himself to the forfeiture of privileges which may be, and often are, of the most grave importance to him."
"would, in practice, become a trap whose closing upon them would have no rational relation to anything they could foresee as significant. We cannot believe that Congress meant to subject those who had acquired a residence to the sport of chance when the interests at stake may be so momentous."
"be forfeited because of perfectly lawful conduct which he could not possibly have supposed would result in anything of the sort. Caprice in the incidence of punishment is one of the indicia of tyranny, and nothing can be more disingenuous than to say that deportation in these circumstances is not punishment. It is well that we should be free to rid ourselves of those who abuse our hospitality; but it is more important that the continued enjoyment of that hospitality, once granted, shall not be subject to meaningless and irrational hazards."
"[w]e might as well hold that, if he had been kidnapped and taken to Cuba, he made a statutory 'entry' on his voluntary return. Respect for law does not thrive on captious interpretations."
"[w]e will not attribute to Congress a purpose to make his right to remain here dependent on circumstances so fortuitous and capricious as those upon which the Immigration Service has here seized. The hazards to which we are now asked to subject the alien are too irrational to square with the statutory scheme."
concern in codifying the definition of "entry" was with "the status of an alien who has previously entered the United States and resided therein. . . ." This concern was in the direction of ameliorating the harsh results visited upon resident aliens by the rule of United States ex rel. Volpe v. Smith, supra, as is indicated by the recognition that "the courts have departed from the rigidity of [the earlier] rule," and the statement that "[t]he bill [gives] due recognition to the judicial precedents." It must be recognized, of course, that the only liberalizing decisions to which the Reports referred specifically were Di Pasquale and Delgadillo, and that there is no indication one way or the other in the legislative history of what Congress thought about the problem of resident aliens who leave the country for insignificantly short periods of time. Nevertheless, it requires but brief consideration of the policies underlying § 101(a)(13), and of certain other aspects of the rights of returning resident aliens, to conclude that Congress, in approving the judicial undermining of Volpe, supra, and the relief brought about by the Di Pasquale and Delgadillo decisions, could not have meant to limit the meaning of the exceptions it created in § 101(a)(13) to the facts of those two cases.
general premise of the two decisions impelled the more general conclusion that "it is . . . important that the continued enjoyment of [our] hospitality once granted, shall not be subject to meaningless and irrational hazards." 158 F.2d at 879. See also Delgadillo, supra, at 332 U. S. 391. Coupling these essential principles of the two decisions explicitly approved by Congress in enacting § 101(a)(13) with the more general observation, appearing in Delgadillo as well as elsewhere, [Footnote 9] that "[d]eportation can be the equivalent of banishment or exile," it is difficult to conceive that Congress meant its approval of the liberalization wrought by Di Pasquale and Delgadillo to be interpreted mechanistically to apply only to cases presenting factual situations identical to what was involved in those two decisions.
alien's status is not necessarily to be endangered by his absence from the country, strengthens the foundation underlying a belief that the exceptions to § 101(a)(13) should be read to protect resident aliens who are only briefly absent from the country. Of further, although less specific, effect in this regard is this Court's holding in Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding, 344 U. S. 590, that the returning resident alien is entitled as a matter of due process to a hearing on the charges underlying any attempt to exclude him, a holding which supports the general proposition that a resident alien who leaves this country is to be regarded as retaining certain basic rights.
Congress in enacting § 101(a)(13) to ameliorate the severe effects of the strict "entry" doctrine.
trip to Mexico in 1956, except for his testimony that he was gone "about a couple hours," and that he was "just visiting; taking a trip." That being the case, we deem it appropriate to remand the case for further consideration of the application of § 101(a)(13) to this case in light of our discussion herein. If it is determined that respondent did not "intend" to depart in the sense contemplated by § 101(a)(13), the deportation order will not stand, and adjudication of the constitutional issue reached by the court below will be obviated. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore vacated, and the case remanded with directions that the parties be given leave to amend their pleadings to put in issue the question of "entry" in accordance with the foregoing, and for further proceedings consistent herewith.
Although there is dictum on the point of Bonetti v. Rogers, 356 U. S. 691, 356 U. S. 698-699, we regard it as not fully considered, since resolution of the issue was not crucial to decision of the case. Compare Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei, 345 U. S. 206, 345 U. S. 213, 73.
The 1952 Act became effective on December 24, 1952, and Fleuti entered the country for permanent residence on October 9, 1952, a fact which is of significance because § 241(a)(1) of the Act only commands the deportation of aliens "excludable by the law existing at the time of such entry. . . ." Hence, since respondent's homosexuality did not make him excludable by any law existing at the time of his 1952 entry, it is critical to determine whether his return from a few hours in Mexico in 1956 was an "entry" in the statutory sense. If it was not, the question whether § 212(a)(4) could constitutionally be applied to him need not be resolved.
Previous cases which contain the same general kind of language, but which are distinguishable on their facts, are Lapina v. Williams, 232 U. S. 78; Lewis v. Frick, 233 U. S. 291; United States ex rel. Claussen v. Day, 279 U. S. 398; United States ex rel. Polymeris v. Trudell, 284 U. S. 279; and United States ex rel. Stapf v. Corsi, 287 U. S. 129. The only one of these cases which involved an absence from the country as extremely brief as Fleuti's is Lewis v. Frick, and, in that case, deportation was premised on the fact that, on his return from the trip in issue, the alien had sought to bring a woman into the country for an immoral purpose. 233 U.S. at 233 U. S. 297-300.
E.g., Ex parte Parianos, 23 F.2d 918 (C.A.9th Cir. 1928); United States ex rel. Medich v. Burmaster, 24 F.2d 57 (C.A.8th Cir. 1928); Cahan v. Carr, 47 F.2d 604 (C.A.9th Cir. 1931), cert. denied, 283 U.S. 862; Zurbrick v. Borg, 47 F.2d 690 (C.A.6th Cir. 1931); Taguchi v. Carr, 62 F.2d 307 (C.A.9th Cir. 1932); Ward v. De Barros, 75 F.2d 34 (C.A.1st Cir. 1935); Guarneri v. Kessler, 98 F.2d 580 (C.A.5th Cir. 1938), cert. denied, 305 U.S. 648; Del Castillo v. Carr, 100 F.2d 338 (C.A.9th Cir. 1938); United States ex rel. Kowalenski v. Flynn, 17 F.2d 524 (D.C.W.D.N.Y.1927); United States ex rel. Siegel v. Reimer, 23 F.Supp. 642 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.), aff'd, 97 F.2d 1020 (C.A.2d Cir. 1938).
E.g., Jackson v. Zurbrick, 59 F.2d 937 (C.A.6th Cir. 1932); Zurbrick v. Woodhead, 90 F.2d 991 (C.A.6th Cir. 1937); United States ex rel. Ueberall v. Williams, 187 F. 470 (D.C.S.D.N.Y.1911); Guimond v. Howes, 9 F.2d 412 (D.C.D.Maine 1925); Ex parte Piazzola, 18 F.2d 114 (D.C.W.D.N.Y.1926).
In re Michael Bonadino, D.C.W.D.N.Y., unreported, Dec. 20, 1924; United States ex rel. Valenti v. Karmuth, 1 F.Supp. 370 (D.C.N.D.N.Y.1932); Annello ex rel. Annello v. Ward, 8 F.Supp. 797 (D.C.D.Mass.1934).
It should be pointed out, however, that the Ninth Circuit has, subsequent to the decisions cited in the text, held specifically that length of time outside the country is still irrelevant to the question of "entry." Schoeps v. Carmichael, 177 F.2d 391 (C.A.9th Cir. 1949), cert. denied, 339 U.S. 914; Pimental-Navarro v. Del Guercio, 256 F.2d 877 (C.A.9th Cir. 1958).
"Section 101(a)(13) defines the term 'entry.' Frequent reference is made to the term 'entry' in the immigration laws, and many consequences relating to the entry and departure of aliens flow from its use, but the term is not precisely defined in the present law. Normally an entry occurs when the alien crosses the border of the United States and makes a physical entry, and the question of whether an entry has been made is susceptible of a precise determination. However, for the purposes of determining the effect of a subsequent entry upon the status of an alien who has previously entered the United States and resided therein, the preciseness of the term 'entry' has not been found to be as apparent. Earlier judicial constructions of the term in the immigration laws, as set forth in Volpe v. Smith, 289 U. S. 422(1933), generally held that the term 'entry' included any coming of an alien from a foreign country to the United States whether such coming be the first or a subsequent one. More recently, the courts have departed from the rigidity of that rule and have recognized that an alien does not make an entry upon his return to the United States from a foreign country where he had no intent to leave the United States, Di Pasquale v. Karnuth, 158 F.2d 878 (C.C.A.2d 1947), or did not leave the country voluntarily, Delgadillo v. Carmichael, 332 U. S. 388, (1947). The bill defines the term 'entry' as precisely as practicable, giving due recognition to the judicial precedents. Thus any coming of an alien from a foreign port or place or an outlying possession into the United States is to be considered an entry, whether voluntary or otherwise, unless the Attorney General is satisfied that the departure of the alien, other than a deportee, from this country was unintentional or was not voluntary."
H.R.Rep. No. 1365, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. 32 (1952); S.Rep. No. 1137, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. 4 (1952).
See Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U. S. 276, 259 U. S. 284; Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U. S. 135, 326 U. S. 147; Fong Haw Tan v. Phelan, 333 U. S. 6, 333 U. S. 10; Barber v. Gonzales, 347 U. S. 637, 347 U. S. 642-643.
Compare Bernard, American Immigration Policy (1950), 296; Gordon, When Does an Alien Enter the United States? 9 Fed.B.J. 248, 250, 258-259 (1948); Hofstein, The Returning Resident Alien, 10 Intra.L.Rev. 271, 273, 280 (1955); Konvitz, Civil Rights in Immigration (1953), 92; Maslow, Recasting Our Deportation Law: Proposals for Reform, 56 Col.L.Rev. 309, 327-329 (1956); Report of the President's Commission on Immigration and Naturalization, Whom We Shall Welcome (1953), 179-180, 199-200; Note, Rights of Aliens in Exclusion Proceedings, 3 Utah L.Rev. 349, 350 n. 20 (1953); Note, Limitations on Congressional Power to Deport Resident Aliens Excludable as Psychopaths at Time of Entry, 68 Yale L.J. 931, 937-938 n. 25 (1959).
MR. JUSTICE CLARK, with whom MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, MR. JUSTICE STEWART and MR. JUSTICE WHITE join, dissenting.
that his departure to a foreign port or place or to an outlying possession was not intended or reasonably to be expected by him or his presence in a foreign port or place or in an outlying possession was not voluntary. . . ."
8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(13). That this definition of "entry" includes the respondent's entry after his brief trip to Mexico in 1956 is a conclusion which seems to me inescapable. The conclusion is compelled by the plain meaning of the statute, its legislative history, and the consistent interpretation by the federal courts. Indeed, the respondent himself did not even question that his return to the United States was an "entry" within the meaning of § 101(a)(13). Nonetheless, the Court has rewritten the Act sua sponte, creating a definition of "entry" which was suggested by many organizations during the hearings prior to its enactment, but which was rejected by the Congress. I believe the authorities discussed in the Court's opinion demonstrate that "entry" as defined in § 101(a)(13) cannot mean what the Court says it means, but I will add a few words of explanation.
an entry upon his return. Lewis v. Frick, 233 U. S. 291 (1914).
"those were cases where the alien plainly expected or planned to enter a foreign port or place. Here he was catapulted into the ocean, rescued, and taken to Cuba. He had no part in selecting the foreign port as his destination."
Id. at 332 U. S. 390. The Court specifically relied on Di Pasquale v. Karnuth, 158 F.2d 878 (C.A.2d Cir. 1947), where an alien who had ridden a sleeping car from Buffalo to Detroit, without knowledge that the train's route was through Canada, was held not to have made an "entry" upon his arrival in Detroit.
"The bill defines the term 'entry' as precisely as practicable, giving due recognition to the judicial precedents. Thus, any coming of an alien from a foreign port or place or an outlying possession into the United States is to be considered an entry, whether voluntary or otherwise, unless the Attorney General is satisfied that the departure of the alien, other than a deportee, from this country was unintentional or was not voluntary."
H.R.Rep.No.1365, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. 32; S.Rep.No. 1137, 82d Cong., 2d Sess. 4. Thus, there is nothing in the legislative history or in the statute itself which would exempt the respondent's return from Mexico from the definition of "entry." Rather, the statute, in retaining the definition expressed in Volpe, seems clearly to cover respondent's entry, which occurred after he knowingly left the United States in order to travel to a city in Mexico. That the trip may have been "innocent, casual, and brief" does not alter the fact that, in the words of the Court in Delgadillo, the respondent "plainly expected or planned to enter a foreign port or place." 332 U.S. at 332 U. S. 390.
"[t]he term 'entry' is defined to mean any coming of an alien into the United States. It is recommended that this be narrowed to provide that a return, after a temporary absence, to an unrelinquished domicile shall not constitute a new entry. [Footnote 2/2]"
in 1958, specifically recognized that the word "entry" retained its plain meaning, stating that "a resident alien who leaves the country for any period, however brief, does make a new entry on his return. . . ." Bonetti v. Rogers, 356 U. S. 691, 356 U. S. 698.
What the Court should do is proceed to the only question which either party sought to resolve: whether the deportation order deprived respondent of due process of law in that the term "afflicted with psychopathic personality," as it appears in § 212(a)(4) of the Act, is unconstitutionally vague. Since it fails to do so, I must dissent.
Statement of Edward J. Ennis, Representing the American Civil Liberties Union, printed in Joint Hearings before the Subcommittees of the Committees on the Judiciary on S. 716, H.R. 2379, and H.R. 2816, 82d Cong., 1st Sess. 143.
Recommendations and Suggestion With Respect to Titles I and II of S. 716 and H.R. 2379, printed in Joint Hearings, supra, note 1 at 617. See also Testimony of Stanley H. Lowell on Behalf of Americans for Democratic Action, id. at 445.
See, e.g., Morissette v. United States, 342 U. S. 246; Hall, General Principles of Criminal Law (2d ed. 1960), 105-145; Prosser, Torts (2d ed. 1955), 29-30.

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