United States v. Karnuth

29 F.2d 314, 1928 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1595
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedNovember 10, 1928
StatusPublished

This text of 29 F.2d 314 (United States v. Karnuth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Karnuth, 29 F.2d 314, 1928 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1595 (W.D.N.Y. 1928).

Opinion

HAZEL, District Judge.

This is a rehearing of my earlier decision, handed down May 22, 1928, wherein it was decided that the relators, who were not naturalized Canadians or British subjects by birth, but were natives of Roumania domiciled in Canada, were nevertheless required to present unexpired nonimmigrant passports, duly visaed, on entering the United States, as required by executive order in effect April 1, 1928, notwithstanding their desire to enter temporarily to engage in work or business, or search for work, while maintaining their residence in Canada. Following this decision, the relator John Graber instituted an action in equity against the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner General of Immigration in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to restrain and enjoin the enforcement by them and by their subordinates of General Order 86 of the Department of Labor, held invalid by the Circuit Court of Appeals for this circuit in the Cook-Danelon Cases. United States ex rel. Cook v. Kar-nuth, 24 F.(2d) 649.

After hearing, a temporary injunction restraining the defendant officials from asserting the validity of General Order 86 as against the plaintiff, was granted. During the pendency of said aetion in the District of Columbia, which was begun following the decision by this court, the entry of the order herein remained in abeyance by consent of the government, and numerous aliens, not British subjects by birth- or naturalization, were conditionally admitted, to work and search for work, on writs of habeas corpus, on the theory that the Cook-Danelon Cases inferentially permitted such conditional entry from Canada, even though not actually British subjects, since it was thought that the aliens were subjects of Great Britain within the broad interpretation of the Jay Treaty. A large number of aliens living in Canada were admitted under bond following the Cook-Danelon Cases, under the ruling of the [315]*315Supreme Court in the Pizzaro Case, 2 Wheat. 227, 4 L. Ed. 226, wherein it was held that the words “subjects,” “people,” and “inhabitants” are ordinarily used synonymously, and, in considering the laws of nations, a person enjoying the protection of the sovereign of the country, being a resident therein, was a subject thereof.

It is now urged by the relators that, as the evidence before the Special Board of Inquiry in the John Graber case, which is typical of the other petitioners, simply showed that they were refused admission because not possessed of a consular immigration visa, required of him or them by virtue of General Order 86, instead of a passport visa, the order of exclusion in each instance was null and void, and the writ should be sustained. The return of the government, however, in the John Graher ease, alleges that he was denied admission on the ground that, being an alien, he was not in possession of an immigrant visa, quota or nonquota, “or of a passport or other official document in the nature of a passport, issued by the government to which he owes allegienee, and duly visaed in accordance with regulations prescribed, covering the entry of aliens to the United States under Executive Order No. 4476, dated July 12, 1926, and signed by Calvin Coolidge,” nor within the terms of the revised order dated February 21, 1928, and relating to nonim-migrants. There was no traverse of the return.

Notwithstanding the executive order, counsel urges that it nevertheless was the duty of the Board of Special Inquiry to admit the relators because of the submission by them of a passport, issued by the government of the country of their birth, to the American consul in Canada, accompanied by a request for a visa, and, upon tendering his fees, the refusal of the consul so to do was illegal. Lest there be* confusion, it may be noted that the statute defines an immigrant to be an alien departing from any place outside the United States, destined for the United States, except (section 3, subdivision 2 [8 USCA § 203]) an alien visiting the United States as a tourist or temporarily for business or pleasure, and, as a condition of admission to the United States, an immigrant is required to present to the board a consular immigration visa, as provided by section 202, tit. 8, c..6, USCA, while non-immigrants, according to subdivision H of the Rules and Regulations of the Secretary of Labor, or aliens desiring to enter as temporary visitors or travelers, or temporarily for business or pleasure, must satisfy the examiner beyond a doubt of their status and may be admitted for a reasonable time. The executive order in effect, in so far as relevant, reads:

“Nonimmigrants. With the exceptions hereinafter specified, they must present passports or official documents in the nature of passports issued by the governments of the countries to which they owe allegiance, duly visaed by consular officers of the United States.”

Counsel for relator substantially contends that an alien domiciled in Canada is required simply to present his passport for stamping, and, upon declaring the purpose for which he desires to enter and the length of time he wishes to remain, the consul is required to supply the stamping as evidence of identity, and the alien from Canada in search of work is entitled to enter as a non-immigrant.

I am unable to adopt this view of the duties and functions of a consular agent, or the right of entry into the United States. The executive order, requiring passports to be visaed by a United States consular officer, was manifestly, on its original promulgation, a war measure, which later was converted by Congress into a revenue measure, for the purpose of furnishing funds for the maintenance of the consular service. The ending of the war did not abrogate the presidential order as relating to passports and visas of nonimmigrants. Upon this point it suffices to cite U. S. ex rel. London v. Phelps (C. C. A.) 22 F.(2d) 288, a case decided in November, 1927. In that case the learned court held the executive order in question valid as against a subject of Russian birth, who came to Canada on a British passport, and it eóuld he legally extended without conditions, or limited either in its entirety or in part. See, also, Flora v. Rustad (C. C. A.) 8 F.(2d) 335.

I discover nothing in Johnson v. Keating (C. C. A.) 17 F.(2d) 50, cited by relators, to require me to hold that the American consul is without authority to obtain information from a nonimmigrant or temporary visitor to the United States for the basis of a visaed passport, or that the executive order' requiring a passport visa from nonimmigrants was illegal because, instead of a war measure, it was continued as a revenue measure. The gist of the decision is that the President’s powers were ended as to immigrants by the Immigration Act of 1924, while here the relator is a nonimmigrant, or an alien person, not a British sub-[316]*316jeet, who desires to work in the United States. It is no doubt true that the American consul has no right to refuse a passport visa arbitrarily, but the President’s power to promulgate a reasonable regulation or rule of administration for admission of non-immigrants is supported, not only by the decisions already cited, but also by section 3 of the act of 1924, defining the word “immigrant,” and by subdivision H of the Rules and Regulations of the Department of Labor, to which reference has been made.

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United States Ex Rel. London v. Phelps
22 F.2d 288 (Second Circuit, 1927)
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United States v. Karnuth
24 F.2d 649 (Second Circuit, 1928)

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Bluebook (online)
29 F.2d 314, 1928 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1595, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-karnuth-nywd-1928.