Potter Stewart

“ We agree with the Court of Appeals that the tense of the verb 'be' is not, considered alone, dispositive. [5] On the other hand, we disagree with that court's reliance on the phrase 'at any time after entry' in § 241 (a) (4) to support the conclusion that an alien is deportable for post-entry conduct whether or not he was an alien at the time of conviction. ”

“ The Court therefore concluded that Congress, when it enacted the statute, had expressed a clear intent to group together denaturalized citizens along with aliens who had never acquired citizenship and to deport them for specific crimes involving national security occurring after a specific date at the beginning of World War I.
Neither the language nor the history of § 241 (a) (4) lends itself so easily to a similar construction. ”

“ The argument is made that it is anomalous to hold that a person found to have procured his naturalization by willful misrepresentation is not subject to deportation, although he would be deportable if he had never been naturalized at all. But it is not at all certain that this petitioner would be deportable today if he had never acquired naturalized citizenship. ”