1. Section 5(g) of the Farm Labor Supply Appropriation Act of
1944 does not except agricultural laborers from the provision of §
5 of the Immigration Act of 1917 making it a criminal offense to
induce to migrate to the United States as contract laborers aliens
who are not entitled to enter the United States under the 1917 Act
or any other law of the United States. Pp.
330 U. S.
730-731.
2. Since dismissal of the information in this case was based on
the construction of the 1917 Act as the Government sought to apply
it in the information, the case was properly brought to this Court
on direct appeal from the district court. P.
330 U. S.
725.
Reversed.
A United States District Court dismissed an information charging
a violation of § 5 of the Immigration Act of 1917, 39 Stat. 874, by
inducing aliens to migrate to the United States as contract
laborers -- on the ground that § 5(g) of the Farm Labor Supply
Appropriation Act of 1944, 58 Stat. 11, excepts agricultural
laborers from the provisions of the 1917 Act. On direct appeal to
this Court,
reversed, p.
330 U. S. 731.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.
A United States Attorney filed an information in a Federal
District Court charging that the appellee, Lem Hoy,
"did attempt to induce, assist, encourage, and solicit
Page 330 U. S. 725
certain alien persons to migrate to the United States as
contract laborers . . . who were not alien contract laborers duly
entitled to migrate to the United States under the Act of February
5, 1917, or to enter or migrate to the United States under any
other law of the United States, as the defendant then and there
well knew."
The conduct charged was made an offense by § 5 of the 1917
Immigration Act, referred to in the information. 39 Stat. 874, 879,
8 U.S.C. § 139. Hoy appeared, waived indictment, asked for a bill
of particulars, and moved to dismiss the information on the ground
that § 5 of the 1917 Act had been repealed by § 5(g) of the Farm
Labor Supply Appropriation Act of 1944. 58 Stat. 11, 15, 16, 50
U.S.C. App. Supp. V, § 1355(g). The bill of particulars showed that
Hoy had written a letter to certain persons living in Mexico to
induce them to come to the United States to work for him. In the
letter, Hoy told them that "it makes no difference if you pass as
contraband (smuggle in), as whenever the Immigration catches you, I
will get you out with a bond." The letter also directed the aliens
to see a man near the border who would "bring" them to Hoy for $25,
and stated that Hoy would "arrange everything." It was stipulated
that Hoy wanted the men to work for him as agricultural
laborers.
Holding that the 1944 Farm Labor Act had made the 1917 Act
inapplicable to such farm laborers, and therefore to those who
induced their entry, the District Court dismissed the information.
Since this dismissal was based on the construction of the 1917 Act
as the Government sought to apply it in the information, the case
is properly here on direct appeal from the District Court. 18
U.S.C. Supp. V § 682; 28 U.S.C. § 345.
The 1944 Farm Labor Act, by its terms, was designed to
facilitate the wartime employment, and therefore the immigration
into the United States for a limited stay, of
Page 330 U. S. 726
agricultural laborers from North, South, and Central America and
islands adjacent thereto. In determining whether this information
was properly dismissed, it is appropriate for us to consider
whether Congress intended in the 1944 Act to remove all
restrictions, enforceable by sanctions, against immigration into
the United States of such agricultural laborers from the western
hemisphere, and, at the same time, whether it intended to repeal
not only the provision which prohibited contract laborers from
entering the country, but also the long standing law which made it
a criminal offense to induce such persons, barred by law, to enter.
[
Footnote 1] If the 1944 Act
has these effects, it marks a complete reversal of the
congressional policy which has been followed for more than half a
century. [
Footnote 2]
In line with this policy, the purpose of the 1917 Act, according
to its title, was "To regulate the immigration of aliens to, and
the residence of aliens in, the United States." It provided
detailed qualifications for persons to be admitted to the country.
Certain persons were to be completely barred, such as idiots,
epileptics, chronic alcoholics, vagrants, criminals, polygamists,
prostitutes, persons afflicted with loathsome or dangerous
contagious diseases, persons who advise, advocate, or teach
opposition to organized government or its overthrow by force,
illiterates,
Page 330 U. S. 727
and contract laborers, defined as persons induced or encouraged
to come to this country by offers or promises of employment. The
1917 Act further provided for deportation of improperly admitted
aliens, and authorized the promulgation of regulations to enforce
the various provisions looking to exclusion of all persons except
those qualified to enter the United States under the prescribed
statutory standards. Pursuant to the broad terms of the 1917 and
other supplementary Acts, a bureau of immigration and
naturalization, now a part of the Department of Justice, has been
established to examine the qualifications of those seeking
admission and otherwise to enforce and administer the immigration
laws in the interior and at the borders. [
Footnote 3]
The 1944 Farm Labor Act does not, on its face, purport to relax
the standards of the 1917 and other Acts except in a very limited
way. It does not abolish the screening, administrative, and
enforcement function of the immigration authorities. Indeed, the
sponsor of the bill on the Senate floor explained that the measure
proposed made certain, by provision for strict control of
immigration and immigrants, that the stay of workers admitted
pursuant to its provisions would be wholly temporary, and that "we"
who sponsored the bill "are not in any way interfering with the
firmly established national immigration policy." [
Footnote 4]
Section 5(g) of the 1944 Act, relied on as wholly excepting
agricultural laborers from the restrictions of the 1917 Act, is set
out below. [
Footnote 5] It will
be noted that this section
Page 330 U. S. 728
does permit entrance of agricultural workers who, but for this
Act, would not be admitted under the former law. The only
exceptions from the long list of nonadmissibles under the 1917 and
other Acts are these: illiterates and those who have been induced
to come into the country by
Page 330 U. S. 729
promises of employment, or whose passage has been paid by
corporations or other persons. By specifically lifting the
immigration barriers in these respects, Congress left the barriers
in effect which barred physical and mental defectives, those with
certain diseases, etc. And even the exceptions granted were not
unconditional, for, under the 1944 Act, agricultural laborers could
still be admitted only
"for such time and under such conditions . . . as may be
required by regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of
Immigration and Naturalization with the approval of the Attorney
General. . . ."
In pursuance of their authority under this Act, the immigration
authorities have promulgated regulations which provide in detail
for the admission of agricultural laborers who are "in all respects
admissible under the immigration laws except" as to the particular
limited provisions of the 1917 Act designated in the 1944 Act. Code
Fed.Regs. § 115 (Cum.Supp. 1943). And, as shown by the Senate and
House reports and hearings on the 1944 Act, a vast program was to
be carried out to permit agricultural laborers to enter and to
remain in the United States, but only for a limited time and under
such conditions as conform with the immigration laws and
regulations, and in accordance, so far as this case is concerned,
with agreements made with the Government of Mexico. [
Footnote 6] Far from abolishing the
responsibilities of the immigration authorities in examining and
approving these persons at the border and supervising their stay,
the 1944 Act, the treaty, and the regulations, although changing
those responsibilities in some respects, have actually increased
them. Aliens must still make a lawful entry at the places
designated for their examination, screening, and registration.
Those
Page 330 U. S. 730
who do not meet the statutory standards of the 1917 Act, with
the minor exceptions made in the 1944 Act, must be turned back. And
those who are permitted to enter remain subject to supervision,
control, and early deportation by immigration authorities.
[
Footnote 7]
This brings us to the contention that Hoy cannot be prosecuted
under § 5 of the 1917 Act because the 1944 Act provides that § 5
"shall not apply to the importation of aliens under this title."
But Hoy was not charged with inducing or encouraging the Mexican
aliens whom he wrote to come in "under this title." [
Footnote 8] He was allegedly inviting them to
enter the country in disregard and defiance of "this title" and all
other law. Thus, he was specifically charged with inducing aliens
to come into this country who were not entitled to enter under the
1917 Act or "under any other law of the United States as [he] then
and there well knew." If this charge, as clarified by the bill of
particulars, is true, he was urging aliens to come into this
country without passing through the immigration stations, without
regard to the length of their stay, or whether they were barred by
reason of disease, physical weakness, or any of the other
disqualifications set out in the 1917 and other laws or
regulations.
The 1944 Act was intended to permit alien agricultural workers
to enter the country for a limited time under Government rules and
regulations after proper proofs to Government officials that the
aliens were so qualified. It
Page 330 U. S. 731
is true that the law was intended to fill the need for
agricultural workers by removing the 1917 prohibition against
would-be employers' inviting and inducing foreign workers to come
to the United States. But we are not persuaded that the law, which
provided specific limitations and requisites to entry under it, can
properly be interpreted to authorize would-be employers to invite,
induce, and offer rewards to aliens to circumvent immigration
processing and to enter the United States in disregard and defiance
of law. The 1917 prohibition against employers inducing laborers to
enter the country, enforceable by sanctions, removed obstacles
which might hinder immigration authorities in the performance of
their duties; we do not think the 1944 Act was intended to license
employers to obstruct their performance. The information charged an
offense and it should not have been dismissed.
Reversed.
[
Footnote 1]
Compare 39 Stat. 894, 8 U.S.C. § 163 (crime to aid or
assist any person to enter who believes in violent overthrow of
government); 39 Stat. 880, 43 Stat. 166, 8 U.S.C. § 145 (crime to
bring to United States an alien with certain diseases); 45 Stat.
1551, 8 U.S.C. § 180a (crime for alien to enter at any place other
than at an immigration point, or to elude examination).
See
also 35 Stat 1152, 18 U.S.C. § 550, which provides that
"Whoever directly commits any act constituting an offense
defined in any law of the United States, or aids, abets, counsels,
commands, induces, or procures its commission is a principal."
[
Footnote 2]
See 23 Stat. 332; 32 Stat. 1213; 34 Stat. 898; 41 Stat.
1008;
Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.
S. 457,
143 U. S.
463-465.
[
Footnote 3]
22 Stat. 214, 24 Stat. 415, 26 Stat. 1085, 28 Stat. 780, 32
Stat. 825, 828, 37 Stat. 736, 737, 54 Stat. 1238, 8 U.S.C. §§
100-103.
[
Footnote 4]
90 Cong.Rec. 864 (1944).
[
Footnote 5]
"In order to facilitate the employment by agricultural employers
in the United States of native-born residents of North America,
South America, and Central America, and the islands adjacent
thereto, desiring to perform agricultural labor in the United
States, during continuation of hostilities in the present war, any
such resident desiring to enter the United States for that purpose
shall be exempt from the payment of head tax required by section 2
of the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917, and from other
admission charges, and shall be exempt from those excluding
provisions of section 3 of such Act which relates to contract
laborers, the requirements of literacy, and the payment of passage
by corporations, foreign government, or others, and any such
resident shall be admitted to perform agricultural labor in the
United States for such time and under such conditions (but not
including the exaction of bond to insure ultimate departure from
the United States) as may be required by regulations prescribed by
the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization with the
approval of the Attorney General, and in the event such regulations
require documentary evidence of the country of birth of any such
resident which he is unable to furnish, such requirement may be
waived by the admitting officer of the United States at the point
where such resident seeks entry into the United States if such
official has other proof satisfactory to him that such resident is
a native of the country claimed as his birthplace. Each such
resident shall be provided with an identification card (with his
photograph and fingerprints) to be prescribed under such
regulations which shall be in lieu of all other documentary
requirements, including the registration at time of entry or after
entry required by the Alien Registration Act of 1940. Any such
resident admitted under the foregoing provisions who fails to
maintain the status for which he was admitted or to depart from the
United States in accordance with the terms of his admission shall
be taken into custody under a warrant issued by the Attorney
General at any time after entry and deported in accordance with
section 20 of the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917. Sections 5
and 6 of such Act shall not apply to the importation of aliens
under this title. No provision of this title shall authorize the
admission into the United States of any enemy alien."
§ 5(g), Farm Labor Supply Appropriation Act, 1944, 58 Stat. 11,
15-16, 50 U.S.C. App.Supp.V. 1355(g).
[
Footnote 6]
See H.Rep. No.246, 78th Cong., 1st Sess., 3, 4, 6
(1943); H.Rep. No.358, 78th Cong., 1st Sess., 8 (1943); Sen.Rep.
No.157, 78th Cong., 1st Sess., 3, 4 (1943).
[
Footnote 7]
For example, under the treaty with Mexico governing wartime
immigration of these farm laborers, our Government has the right to
determine where in the United States workers are needed most, and
to send them there. Other provisions of the treaty require that 10%
of each worker's wages be earmarked and returned for deposit in
Mexico, and that their living and working conditions meet specified
standards. These provisions require close supervision of the
admitted aliens by immigration authorities. 56 Stat. 1759-1768; 57
Stat. 1152-1163.
[
Footnote 8]
The phrase "this title" refers only to the "Farm Labor Supply
Appropriation Act, 1944," § 5(1), 58 Stat. 11, 17.