Neither the failure to fully publicize the rights to
naturalization afforded by the Nationality Act of 1940 to
noncitizens who served in the United States Armed Forces during
World War II nor the failure to have an authorized naturalization
representative stationed in the Philippine Islands during the time
such rights were available estopped the Government from relying on
the fact that the deadline for filing naturalization applications
such as respondent Filipino's had expired more than 20 years
earlier.
Certiorari granted; 475 F.2d 7, reversed.
PER CURIAM.
Respondent filed his petition for naturalization in the United
States District Court for the Northern District of California on
September 13, 1967. The District Court granted the petition,
rejecting the negative recommendation of the naturalization
examiner appointed by the Attorney General pursuant to § 335 of the
Immigration and Nationality Act, 66 Stat. 255, 8 U.S.C. § 1446. The
Court of Appeals affirmed, 475 F.2d 7 (CA9 1973), holding that,
even though the deadline fixed by Congress for the filing of
applications such as respondent's had expired more than 20 years
earlier, petitioner was "estopped" from relying on this fact.
Respondent was born in Manila in 1917, and in February, 1941,
enlisted in the Philippine Scouts, a unit that was part of the
United States Army. He was captured by the Japanese Armed Forces
and released after six months' internment. In April, 1945, after
the liberation of the Philippines by Allied Forces, he rejoined the
Scouts
Page 414 U. S. 6
and served until his discharge in December, 1945.
Sections 701 and 702 of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended,
provided for the naturalization of noncitizens who served honorably
in the Armed Forces of the United States during World War II.
* Section 701
Page 414 U. S. 7
exempted certain alien servicemen who served outside the
continental limits of the United States from some of the usual
requirements for naturalization, including those of a period of
residence in the United States and literacy in English. An
amendment to this section specified that all petitions filed under
it had to be filed no later than December 31, 1946. Section 702
provided for the overseas naturalization of persons eligible for
naturalization under § 701 who were not within the jurisdiction of
any court authorized to naturalize aliens; naturalization under §
702 could take place only during active service in the Armed
Forces. Section 705 authorized the Commissioner of Immigration and
Naturalization, with the approval of the Attorney General, to make
such rules and regulations as were necessary to carry into effect
the provisions of the Act.
Respondent entered the United States for the first and only time
on April 25, 1964, more than 17 years after the expiration of the
time limit established by Congress for claiming naturalization
under the "exemptions of the Act." He entered on a
visitor-for-business visa, which expired on June 30, 1964. His
subsequent petition for naturalization was based on the assertion
that the Government was estopped from relying on the statutory time
limit which Congress had attached to the provisions under which he
claimed. The estoppel was said to arise from petitioner's failure
to advise him, during the time he was
Page 414 U. S. 8
eligible, of his right to apply for naturalization, and from
petitioner's failure to provide a naturalization representative in
the Philippines during all of the time respondent and those in his
class were eligible for naturalization. The District Court adopted
respondent's contention, and its conclusions were upheld by the
Court of Appeals.
It is well settled that the Government is not in a position
identical to that of a private litigant with respect to its
enforcement of laws enacted by Congress.
"As a general rule, laches or neglect of duty on the part of
officers of the Government is no defense to a suit by it to enforce
a public right or protect a public interest. . . . A suit by the
United States to enforce and maintain its policy respecting lands
which it holds in trust for all the people stands upon a different
plane, in this and some other respects, from the ordinary private
suit to regain the title to real property or to remove a cloud from
it."
Utah Power & Light Co. v. United States,
243 U. S. 389,
243 U. S. 409
(1917). Here, the petitioner has been charged by Congress with
administering an Act which both made available benefits of
naturalization to persons in respondent's class and established a
cut-off date for the claiming of such benefits. Petitioner, in
enforcing the cut-off date established by Congress, as well as in
recognizing claims for the benefits conferred by the Act, is
enforcing the public policy established by Congress.
While the issue of whether "affirmative misconduct" on the part
of the Government might estop it from denying citizenship was left
open in
Montana v. Kennedy, 366 U.
S. 308,
366 U. S. 314,
366 U. S. 315
(1961), no conduct of the sort there adverted to was involved here.
We do not think that the failure to fully publicize the rights
which Congress accorded
Page 414 U. S. 9
under the Act of 1940, or the failure to have stationed in the
Philippine Islands during all of the time those rights were
available an authorized naturalization representative, can give
rise to an estoppel against the Government.
Respondent's effort to claim naturalization under a statute
which, by its terms, had expired more than 20 years before he filed
his lawsuit must therefore fail. The petition for certiorari is
granted, and the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed.
* Sections 701, 702, and 705 of the Nationality Act of 1940,
added by the Second War Powers Act, 1942, 56 Stat. 182, as amended,
8 U.S.C. §§ 1001, 1002, 1005 (1940 ed., Supp. V), provided in
pertinent part:
Sec. 701.
"[A]ny person not a citizen, regardless of age, who has served
or hereafter serves honorably in the military or naval forces of
the United States during the present war and [w]ho shall have been
at the time of his enlistment or induction a resident thereof and
who (a) was lawfully admitted into the United States, including its
Territories and possessions, or (b) having entered the United
States, including its Territories and possessions, prior to
September 1, 1943, being unable to establish lawful admission into
the United States, serves honorably in such forces beyond the
continental limits of the United States or has so served may be
naturalized upon compliance with all the requirements of the
naturalization laws except that (1) no declaration of intention, no
certificate of arrival for those described in group (b) hereof, and
no period of residence within the United States or any State shall
be required; (2) the petition for naturalization may be filed in
any court having naturalization jurisdiction regardless of the
residence of the petitioner; (3) the petitioner shall not be
required to speak the English language, sign his petition in his
own handwriting, or meet any educational test; . . .
Provided,
however, That . . . (3) the petition shall be filed not later
than December 31, 1946. . . ."
Sec. 702.
"During the present war, any person entitled to naturalization
under section 701 of this Act, who, while serving honorably in the
military . . . forces of the United States, is not within the
jurisdiction of any court authorized to naturalize aliens, may be
naturalized in accordance with all the applicable provisions of
section 701 without appearing before a naturalization court. The
petition for naturalization of any petitioner under this section
shall be made and sworn to before, and filed with, a representative
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service designated by the
Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner, which designated
representative is hereby authorized to receive such petition in
behalf of the Service, to conduct hearings thereon, to take
testimony concerning any matter touching or in any way affecting
the admissibility of any such petitioner for naturalization, to
call witnesses, to administer oaths, including the oath of the
petitioner and his witnesses to the petition for naturalization and
the oath of renunciation and allegiance prescribed by section 335
of this Act, and to grant naturalization, and to issue certificates
of citizenship. . . ."
Sec. 705.
"The Commissioner, with the approval of the Attorney General,
shall prescribe and furnish such forms, and shall make such rules
and regulations, as may be necessary to carry into effect the
provisions of this Act."
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, with whom MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN and MR.
JUSTICE MARSHALL concur, dissenting.
The Court today summarily reverses the decision of the Court of
Appeals, which found that the Government was estopped from denying
citizenship to respondent under the Nationality Act of 1940.
[
Footnote 1] The Court reasons
that estoppel is not even arguably applicable because there was no
"affirmative misconduct" on the part of the United States; it
implies that there were merely failures to "fully publicize" the
rights given by the Act and "to have stationed in the Philippine
Islands during all of the time those rights were available an
authorized naturalization representative." Failures of this kind
could, perhaps, be excused if caused by the exigencies of war as
long as good faith efforts to carry out the provisions of the Act
had been made.
But the Court ignores the record and the decisions below when it
speaks only of these failures. In 1942, Congress amended the
Nationality Act of 1940 to extend the benefits of citizenship to
individuals who had fought in the Armed Forces of the United States
during World War II, authorizing the appointment of
naturalization
Page 414 U. S. 10
officers to confer these benefits on noncitizens outside the
jurisdiction of a naturalization court. [
Footnote 2] Between 1943 and 1946, these officers
traveled from post to post through England, Iceland, North Africa,
and the islands of the Pacific, naturalizing thousands of foreign
nationals pursuant to the mandate of Congress.
The story in the Philippines was different. After the Japanese
occupation of the Philippines ended, an American vice-consul was
authorized to commence naturalization proceedings in 1945. Almost
immediately thereafter, the Philippine Government expressed its
concern about
Page 414 U. S. 11
Filipino men leaving the Territory after being granted American
citizenship. In response to these concerns, the Commissioner of
Immigration, on September 13, 1945, wrote a letter to the Attorney
General recommending that the "situation . . . be handled by
revoking the authority previously granted [the vice-consul] and by
omitting to designate any representative authorized to confer
citizenship in the Philippine Islands. . . ." The Commissioner's
recommendation was approved by the Attorney General on September
26, 1945, and the authority of the vice-consul to naturalize alien
servicemen immediately revoked.
Because of this action, there was no authorized naturalization
representative in the Philippines. The District Court found as a
fact that respondent, had he known about his right to be
naturalized while he was in the Armed Forces and had means been
available, would have applied for naturalization. Instead, with no
means available, respondent was discharged from the Armed Forces in
December, 1945, thereby losing his right to claim citizenship under
§ 702 of the 1940 Act. [
Footnote
3]
The Court's opinion ignores the deliberate -- and successful --
effort on the part of agents of the Executive Branch to frustrate
the congressional purpose and to deny substantive rights to
Filipinos such as respondent, by administrative fiat, indicating
instead that there was no affirmative misconduct involved in this
case.
The record does not support that conclusion. I would grant
certiorari and put the case down for oral argument.
[
Footnote 1]
C. 876, 54 Stat. 1137.
[
Footnote 2]
As amended, Act of Mar. 27, 1942, c.199, § 1001, which added §§
701-705 to the 1940 Act, 56 Stat. 182, the Nationality Act waived
certain normal requirements for naturalization, such as residency
in the United States and literacy in English for noncitizens who
had served in the United States Armed Forces.
Id. § 701.
Section 702 of the amended Act provided that aliens could claim
these benefits even when, like respondent, they were outside the
jurisdiction of a naturalization court, but only so long as they
were in active service in the Armed Forces; this section also
explicitly authorized the designation of naturalization officers to
effectuate its purposes:
"During the present war, any person entitled to naturalization
under section 701 of this Act, who while serving honorably in the
military or naval forces of the United States is not within the
jurisdiction of any court authorized to naturalize aliens, may be
naturalized in accordance with all the applicable provisions of
section 701 without appearing before a naturalization court. The
petition for naturalization of any petitioner under this section
shall be made and sworn to before, and filed with, a representative
of the Immigration and Naturalization Service designated by the
Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner, which designated
representative is hereby authorized to receive such petition in
behalf of the Service, to conduct hearings thereon, to take
testimony concerning any matter touching or in any way affecting
the admissibility of any such petitioner for naturalization, to
call witnesses, to administer oaths, including the oath of the
petitioner and his witnesses to the petition for naturalization and
the oath of renunciation and allegiance prescribed by section 335
of this Act, and to grant naturalization, and to issue certificates
of citizenship. . . ."
Id., § 702.
[
Footnote 3]
See n 2,
supra. It was not until August, 1946, eight months after
respondent's discharge, that a naturalization agent was reappointed
for the Philippines and a good faith effort made to naturalize
Filipinos under § 702 of the Act. In four months, 4,000 Filipinos
took advantage of the opportunity.