Arthur Goldberg

“ This enlightened concept of what constitutes a meaningful interruption of the continuous residence which must support a petition for naturalization, reflecting as it does a congressional judgment that an alien's status is not necessarily to be endangered by his absence from the country, strengthens the foundation underlying a belief that the exceptions to § 101 (a) (13) should be read to protect resident aliens who are only briefly absent from the country. ”

“ If there were a duty upon aliens to inquire about a carrier's route, it 'would in practice become a trap, whose closing upon them would have no rational relation to anything they could foresee as significant. We cannot believe that Congress meant to subject those who had acquired a residence, to the sport of chance, when the interests at stake may be so momentous.' Ibid. ”

“ Di Pasquale v. Karnuth, 158 F.2d 878. Judge Hand recognized that the alien ' acquiesced in whatever route the railroad might choose to pull the car,' id., at 879, but held that it would be too harsh to impute the carrier's intent to the alien, there being no showing that the alien knew he would be entering Canada. 'Were it otherwise,' Judge Hand went on, 'the alien would be subjected without means of protecting himself to the forfeiture of privileges which may be, and often are, of the most grave importance to him.' Ibid. ”

“ The only one of these cases which involved an absence from the country as extremely brief as Fleuti's is Lewis v. Frick, and in that case deportation was premised on the fact that on his return from the trip in issue the alien had sought to bring a woman into the country for an immoral purpose. ”

“ Smith, supra, as is indicated by the recognition that 'the courts have departed from the rigidity of (the earlier) rule,' and the statement that ' (t) he bill (gives) due recognition to the judicial precedents.' It must be recognized, of course, that the only liberalizing decisions to which the Reports referred specifically were Di Pasquale and Delgadillo, and that there is no indication one way or the other in the legislative history of what Congress thought about the problem of resident aliens who leave the country for insignificantly short periods of time. ”

“ Delgadillo v. Carmichael, 332 U.S. 388, 68 S.Ct. 10, 92 L.Ed. 17. The Court pointed out that it was 'the exigencies of war, not his voluntary act,' id., at 391, 68 S.Ct. at 12, which put the alien on foreign soil, adding that ' (w) e might as well hold that if he had been kidnapped and taken to Cuba, he made a statutory 'entry' on his voluntary return. Respect for law does not thrive on captious interpretations.' Ibid. ”

“ Di Pasquale, supra, at 879, of 158 F.2d. In making such a casual trip the alien would seldom be aware that he was possibly walking into a trap, for the insignificance of a brief trip to Mexico or Canada bears little rational relation to the punitive consequence of subsequent excludability. ”

“ This general premise of the two decisions impelled the more general conclusion that 'it is * * * important that the continued enjoyment of (our) hospitality once granted, shall not be subject to meaningless and irrational hazards.' 158 F.2d, at 879. ”

“ Neese v. Southern R. Co., 350 U.S. 77, 76 S.Ct. 131, 100 L.Ed. 60; Mackey v. Mendoza-Martinez, 362 U.S. 384, 80 S.Ct. 785, 4 L.Ed.2d 812; we have concluded that there is a threshold issue of statutory interpretation in the case, the existence of which obviates decision here as to whether § 212 (a) (4) is constitutional as applied to respondent.
That issue is whether Fleuti's return to the United States from his afternoon trip to Ensenada, Mexico, in August 1956 constituted an 'entry' within the meaning of § 101 (a) (13) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat. ”

“ Barber v. Gonzales, 347 U.S. 637, 642-643, 74 S.Ct. 822, 98 L.Ed. 1009.↑ Compare Bernard, American Immigration Policy (1950) , 296; Gordon, When Does an Alien Enter the United States? 9 Fed.B.J. 248, 250, 258-259 (1948) ”