Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It would be an amazing claim of power if commissioners decided not to admit aliens because the labor market of the United States was overstocked. Yet, as officers of the general government, they would seem to be more concerned with that than with the conditions of any particular city or state. Detriment to labor conditions is allowed to be considered in § 1, but it is confined to those in the continental territory of the United States, and the matter is to be determined by the President. ”

“ Stat. 1913, § 4244, determining who shall be excluded, 'Persons likely to become a public charge' are mentioned between paupers and professional beggars, and along with idiots, persons dangerously diseased, persons certified by the examining surgeon to have a mental or physical defect of a nature to affect their ability to earn a living, convicted felons, prostitutes, and so forth. ”

“ The single question on this record is whether an alien can be declared likely to become a public charge on the ground that the labor market in the city of his immediate destination is overstocked. In the act of February 20, 1907, chap. ”