United States ex rel. Vassiliades v. Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization

103 F.2d 423, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3581, 1939 A.M.C. 797
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 17, 1939
DocketNo. 248
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 103 F.2d 423 (United States ex rel. Vassiliades v. Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Vassiliades v. Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization, 103 F.2d 423, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3581, 1939 A.M.C. 797 (2d Cir. 1939).

Opinion

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The relator Vassiliades arrived in the United States from Patras, Greece, on December 20, 1929, as a member of a crew of the S.S. Exmoor of the American Export Line. He was thereupon paid off and discharged and remained in this country continuously thereafter. In 1932 he was arrested by the immigration authorities and held in custody on the charge that he had remained in the United States longer than the sixty days allowed by the Immigration Act of 1924 and rules promulgated thereunder. A hearing was had .before a Board of Review which, on October 20, 1932, after finding that the evidence supported the charge of having remained longer than permitted by law, stated that “the alien • may be permitted to depart voluntarily, or ship foreign one way, without expense to the United States, to any country of his choice, except contiguous' territory or adjacent islands, * * * w

In conformity with the decision of the Board of Review a warrant of deportation was issued ordering that the alien be deported to' Turkey but containing a clause permitting him to depart voluntarily as provided in the decision of the Board. In January, 1933, the Consul General of Turkey informed the Commissioner of Immigration that under Article 28 of the agreement of Ankara made between Turkey and Greece the relator had acquired Greek citizenship, whereupon, on January 30, 1933, the warrant of deportation was modified so as to provide for deportation to Greece rather than to Turkey, but to preserve permission to the alien to depart voluntarily as directed in the original warrant. On January 11, 1933, the relator had married an American girl of sixteen when confronted in the State Courts with a charge of statutory rape. On August 28, 1933, the New York Superintendent of Insurance, having succeeded to the rights of the relator’s surety which had gone into liquidation, surrendered him to the immigration authorities. The Board of Review again considered his case on August 28, 1933, found that there had been no success in obtaining proper documents’for deportation from the Greek authorities, that he had been married to a citizen of the’ United States on January 11, 1933, recommended that the prior ot;der for deportation of January 30, 1933, be rescinded and that further proceedings be held in abeyance until July 1, 1934, so that representations might be made to the incoming Congress seeking a change in existing law in order to afford relief in [425]*425case of immigrants who had married. It also recited that if the alien desired in the meantime to depart voluntarily in order to effect a legal future entry he would be permitted to do so.

The relator neglected to take advantage of the permission to depart voluntarily. On June 30, 1937, and after an unfavorable social report as to Vassiliades and his family, dated July 10, 1936, had been submitted to the Department of Labor by the International Institute, Y.W.C.A., the Board of Review again considered the case and held that on account of “the general undesirability of this alien the case is not one to be comprehended within any remediable legislation now before Congress.” It recommended that, although the alien was deportable, an order of deportation should not be entered at that time, but that he should be advised that he might depart from the United States voluntarily to any country of his choice, on or before July 31, 1937. It also stated that unless the alien did so depart deportation would follow, in which event he would not under existing law be eligible to apply for entry into the United States until after one year following date of deportation and then only if the Secretary of Labor authorized him to apply for admission. In spite of this indulgence the relator neglected to leave the country within the additional period afforded him. This, as he stated, was due to lack of funds.

On September 18, 1937, the Board of Review recommended deportation to Greece and a warrant of deportation followed under date of October 5, 1937. After a Greek passport had been obtained on June 13, 1938, the relator was taken into custody for deportation. Thereupon he sued out a writ of habeas corpus on June 18, 1938, which was withdrawn on July 12, 1938, in order that he might further apply for administrative reconsideration of his case. On July 11, 1938, the executive director of the National Institute of Immigrant Welfare made a favorable social report about the Vassiliades’ family which showed that its household surroundings were satisfactory, that the two children were well cared for, the family relations were harmonious and the husband after having been for some time on relief had obtained employment. After reconsideration of the two social reports which had been made, the Commission of Immigration, on July 20, 1938, ordered the New York office to proceed with deportation, whereupon the relator sued out another writ of habeas corpus which was dismissed by the District Court on July 27, 1938. From the order of dismissal this appeal was taken.

The three questions discussed by relator’s counsel on this appeal are:

(1) Whether the Department of Labor could lawfully make an ex parte order of deportation without notice or hearing when an earlier deportation order made after such notice and hearing had been rescinded.

(2) Whether the Department of Labor abused the discretion granted to it under House Joint Resolution 714 of the 75th Congress, 52 Stat. 1249, in reinstating the order of deportation of January 30, 1933, without notice or hearing and upon the mere hearsay evidence contained in the original social report that the relator was “generally undesirable” where: (a) The order of deportation was based only on the charge of having “remained longer” than permitted under the Immigration Act of 1924, 8 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.; (b) The order was subsequently rescinded by the Department because of the relator’s marriage to a citizen of the United States; (c) Two children have been born of the marriage whom, as well as their mother, the relator is supporting; (d) The charge of “general undesirability” contained in the original social report is contradicted by the last report made by the same social agency.

(3) Whether the relator, who was born in Istanbul, Turkey, is legally deportable to Greece as the order under review provides.

We think it clear that the Department of Labor had the power to make the order of deportation without a further hearing. This order like the one of January 30, 1933, which was rescinded, was based upon the relator’s remaining in the United States longer than the sixty^ days permitted a seaman under the Immigration Act of 1924 and the rules promulgated thereunder. A full hearing had been already afforded the alien in which he admitted that he was in the country illegally. He could obtain no right to remain because he had not been deported promptly and’ had twice been given the privilege of departing voluntarily. The proceeding instituted in 1932 was still pending when the order of September 18, 1937, was made. [426]*426A new hearing was not required to meet a charge which had been fully established and the truth of which had been and still is conceded. Restive v. Clark, 1 Cir., 90 F.2d 847, 851; Marty v. Nagle, 9 Cir., 44 F.2d 695, 696; Seif v. Nagle, 9 Cir., 14 F. 2d 416, certiorari denied 273 U.S. 737, 47 S.Ct. 244, 71 L.Ed. 866.

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Bluebook (online)
103 F.2d 423, 1939 U.S. App. LEXIS 3581, 1939 A.M.C. 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-vassiliades-v-commissioner-of-immigration-ca2-1939.