Opinion ID: 708223
Heading Depth: 7
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Relevance of Congress' Plenary Power

Text: 79 We find no merit in the Government's argument that the broad authority of the political branches over immigration matters justifies limited First Amendment protection for aliens at deportation. This is a variant of its jurisdictional argument that immigration issues that involve foreign policy concerns are non-justiciable political questions. 80 First, although Congress and the President may regulate aliens' admission and residence in the country, that regulation must be consistent with the Constitution. Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698, 712, 13 S.Ct. 1016, 1021, 37 L.Ed. 905 (1893). Since resident aliens have constitutional rights, it follows that Congress may not ignore them in the exercise of its 'plenary' power of deportation. Bridges, 326 U.S. at 161, 65 S.Ct. at 1455 (Murphy, J., concurring); see also Chadha, 462 U.S. at 940-41, 103 S.Ct. at 2778-79. Thus, Congress' less restrained power to decide which aliens to exclude from entry, using processes and procedures that would be constitutionally suspect for citizens, is not dispositive regarding the constitutional constraints that operate at deportation. Cf. Haitian Centers Council, Inc., --- U.S. at ---- - ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2560-61 (acknowledging the important distinction between deportation and exclusion in upholding the President's power to establish foreign policy reasons for repatriation of undocumented aliens intercepted on the high seas); Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U.S. 787, 97 S.Ct. 1473, 52 L.Ed.2d 50 (1977) (upholding immigration preference categories for aliens at entry); Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 73 S.Ct. 625, 97 L.Ed. 956 (1953) (upholding summary processes for exclusion of aliens at entry). 81 Second, our First Amendment jurisprudence rests on the fundamental principle that limitations on First Amendment rights are themselves damaging to the values underlying First Amendment protections. See, e.g., Dombrowski, 380 U.S. at 486-89, 85 S.Ct. at 1120-22. If aliens do not have First Amendment rights at deportation, then their First Amendment rights in other contexts are a nullity, because the omnipresent threat of deportation would permanently chill their expressive and associational activities. See Part I.A.1.b. (3). 82