UNITED STATES EX REL. EICHENLAUB υ. SHAUGHNESSY, ACTING DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION.
NO. 3.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 16-17, 1949. - Decided January 16, 1950.
338 U.S. 521
Eugene H. Nickerson argued the cause and filed a brief for petitioner in No. 82.
Harold D. Cohen argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Perlman, Assistant Attorney General Campbell and Robert S. Erdahl.
MR. JUSTICE BURTON delivered the opinion of the Court.
These cases present the question of whether § 1 of the Act of May 10, 1920,1 authorizes the deportation of an alien under the following circumstances occurring since that Act took effect:
No. 3-THE EICHENLAUB CASE.
Richard Eichenlaub, the relator, was born in Germany in 1905, and entered the United States from there in 1930. He was naturalized as an American citizen in 1936, and has resided in the United States continuously since his reentry in 1937, when he returned from a visit to Germany. In 1941, on his plea of guilty in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, he was convicted of conspiring to act as an agent for a foreign government without having been registered with the Secretary of State.3 He was sentenced to imprisonment for 18 months and fined $1,000. In 1944, with his consent, a judgment was entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York canceling his citizenship on the ground of fraud
This proceeding for a writ of habeas corpus was then filed in the court last named. After hearing, the writ was dismissed and the dismissal was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 167 F. 2d 659. We denied certiorari. 335 U. S. 867. However, when the Court of Appeals affirmed the Willumeit case, now before us, on the authority of this case, but called attention to the added impression which had been made upon it by the argument in favor of Willumeit on the point above stated, we vacated our denial of certiorari in this case and granted certiorari in both. 337 U. S. 955.
No. 82-THE WILLUMEIT CASE.
In 1905, Otto A. Willumeit, the relator, was born in Lorraine, which at that time was a part of Germany,
The proper scope of the Act of 1920 as applied to these cases is found in the ordinary meaning of its words. The material provisions of the Act are as follows:
“... That aliens of the following classes ... shall, upon the warrant of the [Attorney General], be taken into his custody and deported ... if the [Attorney General],11 after hearing, finds that such aliens are undesirable residents of the United States, to wit:
“(2) All aliens who since August 1, 1914, have been or may hereafter be convicted of any violation or conspiracy to violate any of the following Acts or parts of Acts, the judgment on such conviction having become final, namely:
“(a) [The Espionage Act of 1917, as amended].”12
1917, November 16, 1917, December 11, 1917, and April 19, 1918, respectively.
“(2) All aliens who since August 1, 1914, have been or may hereafter be convicted of any violation or conspiracy to violate any of the following Acts or parts of Acts, the judgment on such conviction having become final, namely:
“(a) An Act entitled ‘An Act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes,’ approved June 15, 1917, or the amendment thereof approved May 16, 1918; ....”
The subsequent subdivisions (2) (b) to (h), inclusive, refer to the Explosives Act,
The one substantial issue is whether the Act requires that the relators not only must have been “aliens” at the times when they were ordered deported, but that they must also have had that status at the times when they were convicted of designated offenses against the national security. The Government suggests that one route to a conclusion on this issue is to hold that the relators, as a matter of law, were “aliens” when so convicted. The basis it suggests for so holding is that the judicial annulment of the relators’ naturalizations on the ground of fraud in their procurement deprived them of their naturalizations ab initio. Rosenberg v. United States, 60 F. 2d 475 (C. A. 3d Cir.). They thus would be returned to their status as aliens as of the date of their respective naturalizations. Accordingly, they would come within the scope of the Act of 1920, even if that Act were held to require that all offenders subject to deportation under it also must have had an alien status when convicted of the designated offenses.
In our opinion, it is not necessary, for the purposes of these cases, to give a retroactive effect to the denatu-
The statutory language which says that “aliens who since August 1, 1914, have been or may hereafter be convicted ...” (emphasis supplied)16 refers to the requirement that the deportations be applicable to all persons who had been convicted of certain enumerated offenses since about the beginning of World War I (August 1, 1914), whether those convictions were had before or after May 10, 1920. The crimes listed were not crimes in which convictions depended upon the citizenship, or lack of citizenship, of their perpetrators. In fact, they were crimes against the national security, so that their commission by naturalized citizens might well be regarded by Congress as more reprehensible than their commission by aliens who never had been naturalized.
The recognized purpose of the Act was deportation. It is difficult to imagine a reason which would have made it natural or appropriate for Congress to authorize the Attorney General to pass upon the undesirability and deportability of an alien, never naturalized, who had been convicted of espionage, but would prohibit the Attorney
The failure of Congress to give expression to the distinction, here urged by the relators, between aliens who never have been naturalized and those who have been denaturalized, was not due to unfamiliarity with such matters. In 1920, Congress must have been familiar with the status of aliens denaturalized under § 15 of the Act of June 29, 1906,
The Congressional Committee Reports demonstrate that, while this statute was framed in general language and has remained in effect for 30 years, its enactment originally was occasioned by a desire to deport some or all of about 500 aliens who were then interned as dangerous enemy aliens and who might be found, after hearings, to be undesirable residents, and also to deport some or all of about 150 other aliens who, during World War I, had been convicted of violations of the Espionage Act or other national security measures, and who might be found, after hearings, to be undesirable residents.18 It is hardly conceivable that, under those circumstances, Congress, without expressly saying so, intended to prevent the Secretary of Labor (or his successor, the Attorney General) from deporting alien offenders merely because they had received their respective convictions at times when they held certificates of naturalization, later canceled for fraud. To do so would permit the denaturalized aliens to set up a canceled fraudulent status as a defense, and successfully to claim benefits and advantages under it.19 Congress, in 1920, evidently wanted to provide a means by which to free the United States of residents who (1) had been or thereafter were convicted of certain offenses against the security of the United
We have given consideration to such other points as were raised by the relators, but we find that they do not affect the result.20
The judgment of the Court of Appeals in each case is therefore
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS and MR. JUSTICE CLARK took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases.
MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER, whom MR. JUSTICE BLACK and MR. JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting.
In light of the attitude with which the doom of deportation has heretofore been viewed by this Court, in the case of those whose lives have been intimately tied to ‘this country, I deem it my duty not to squeeze the Act of May 10, 1920,
Since such construction is not unreasonable, due regard for consequences demands that the statute be so read. Where, as here, a statute permits either of two constructions without violence to language, the construction which leads to hardship should be rejected in favor of the permissible construction consonant with humane considerations. The Act of May 10, 1920, provides that “All aliens who since August 1, 1914, have been or may hereafter be convicted” of certain offenses shall be deported upon a finding that they are “undesirable residents of the United States.” Since neither of the petitioners herein was found to “have been” convicted of any offense before passage of the Act, they come, it is urged, within the alternative prerequisite. But the statute, in terms, refers to aliens “who ... may hereafter be convicted,” not persons who are citizens when convicted and later transformed into aliens by the process of denaturalization. And this view of the statute is reinforced by the legislative history as well as by considerations relating to the impact of the Court‘s decision upon various other congressional enactments not now before us.
The Court‘s decision has serious implications with respect to citizens denaturalized for reasons not involving moral blame,4 and who have, while citizens, committed one of a variety of acts not involving moral obliquity and
Notes
Representative Robsion, discussing wealthy aliens: “We permitted them to live here and granted them practically all of the rights of the American citizen. They reward our hospitality by joining with our enemies in an effort to destroy us. As they were not citizens, they were not required to take up arms in defense of the country in which they had grown rich.” 58 Cong. Rec. 3374.
Even convictions under laws related to the national security involve varying degrees of culpability. This is demonstrated by the remarks of the prosecuting attorney to the District Court concerning Dr. Willumeit, the relator in No. 82, when his sentence was being considered:
“It has been our belief, after having gone into this thing pretty thoroughly with him [the relator], that he was more or less caught in it without perhaps intending to go as far as the others went.
“... I have a feeling, your Honor, that Dr. Willumeit can be restored to decent citizenship in this country. I think he has something that he can give to America.
“... I would say that the Government would view a lenient sentence as a just sentence under all the circumstances. We think something can be done with this man. We do not think he is a bad man at heart, your Honor. We think he is probably a good man who got in with bad company and got in with this trouble.
“I say to your Honor I am not his lawyer. I am supposed to be hard with him, I guess, if I believe in it. But in this case I do not feel that this man is a bad actor. I think there is a place for Dr. Willumeit in America in time, and he may become a most useful citizen.”
“is hereby vacated, annulled and set aside, and that the certificate of citizenship, ... is hereby cancelled and declared null and void, ... and the defendant Otto Albert Willumeit is hereby forever restrained and enjoined from setting up or claiming any rights or privileges, benefits or advantages whatsoever under said order, ... or the certificate of citizenship issued by virtue of said order.”
tion Act of 1924,
As in the Eichenlaub case, the warrant of deportation apparently stated that it was based on the fact that the relator “has been found to be a member of the undesirable classes of alien residents....” While the warrant is not printed in the record, the findings of the Commissioner of Immigration and of the Board of Immigration Appeals are printed in full. Each contains an express finding that the relator “is an undesirable resident of the United States.” Each states reasons for so concluding.
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That aliens of the following classes, in addition to those for whose expulsion from the United States provision is made in the existing law, shall, upon the warrant of the Secretary of Labor, be taken into his custody and deported in the manner provided in sections 19 and 20 of the Act of February 5, 1917, entitled ‘An Act to regulate the immigration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in, the United States,’ if the Secretary of Labor, after hearing, finds that such aliens are undesirable residents of the United States, to wit:
“(1) All aliens who are now interned under section 4067 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and the proclamations issued by the President in pursuance of said section under date of April 6,
