Opinion ID: 195172
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Deportation Statute

Text: 5 (i) The Statutory Language 6 Section 1251(a)(4) itself states in relevant part: 7 (a) General classes. Any alien in the United States ... shall, upon the order of the Attorney General, be deported who-- 8 .... 9 (4) is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years after entry and either sentenced to confinement or confined therefor in a prison or corrective institution, for a year or more.... 10 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1251(a)(4). All preconditions for deportation under section 1251(a)(4) are plainly met in the present case, save possibly the CIMT requirement. As to whether an accessory after the fact to murder has committed a CIMT, however, the language of the statute is silent. We therefore look to its legislative history. 11 (ii) The Legislative History 12 The available legislative history reveals that the term moral turpitude first appeared in the federal immigration laws in 1891. See S.Rep. No. 1515, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. 350 (1950); Charles Gordon, Immigration Law and Practice Sec. 71.05[a], 71-121 (Supp.1993). Justice Jackson offered the following insight into the legislative history of the Immigration Act of 1917, see S.Rep. No. 352, 64th Cong., 1st Sess. 390 (1916), the first to authorize deportation of resident aliens convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude: 13 The uncertainties of this statute do not originate in contrariety of judicial opinion. Congress knowingly conceived it in confusion. During the hearings of the House Committee on Immigration, out of which eventually came the Act of 1917 in controversy, clear warning of its deficiencies was sounded and never denied. 14 Mr. SABATH.... [Y]ou know that a crime involving moral turpitude has not been defined. No one can really say what is meant by saying a crime involving moral turpitude.... 15 Despite this notice, Congress did not see fit to state what meaning it attributes to the phrase crime involving moral turpitude. 16 Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, 233-34, 71 S.Ct. 703, 709, 95 L.Ed. 886 (1951) (Jackson, J., dissenting) (quoting from House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization Hearings on H.R.Rep. No. 10384, 64th Cong., 1st Sess. 8 (1916)). 3 The legislative history leaves no doubt, therefore, that Congress left the term crime involving moral turpitude to future administrative and judicial interpretation.