United States v. Shaughnessy

Decision Date09 November 1951
PartiesUNITED STATES ex rel. MEZEI v. SHAUGHNESSY, District Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

Jack Wasserman, Washington, D. C., for relator.

Myles J. Lane, U. S. Atty., for the Southern District of New York, New York City (William J. Sexton, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, of counsel), for respondent.

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, District Judge.

Mezei was excluded from the United States for undisclosed security reasons on February 9, 1950. He has been detained at Ellis Island for 21 months while the government has failed in efforts to deport him. No foreign government has shown a willingness to allow his entry. He now seeks a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that he has been detained an unreasonable period of time.

The case presents the vexatious problem of what to do with an alien who has no place to go.

There is a certain vagueness about Mezei's history. His parents were either Hungarian or Roumanian — this is in doubt — but he claims that he was born on Gibraltar and is therefore a British citizen. He came to the United States in 1923 and remained here until 1948. The government alleges that he was never lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence but this objection seems meaningless now since it is obvious that the government took no action against him in that earlier residence period. He is married to an American citizen, and during World War II he participated in various patriotic activities which he describes generally as work for the Coast Guard, air-raid warden, blood donor, and selling United States war bonds, though he does not indicate with what vigor he pursued these endeavors. Without much doubt his conduct as a resident alien between 1923 and 1948 was unexceptionable. On May 17, 1948 Mezei went to Europe to see his dying mother, who, he says, lived in Roumania. He reached Hungary, but claims he was unable to gain admittance to Roumania, and returned to the United States in February 1950 after experiencing difficulty in gaining exit from Hungary. On February 9, 1950 he was transferred from the French liner Ile de France to Ellis Island on a temporary exclusion order under 8 Code of Federal Regulations 175.57.1 The Attorney General entered a permanent exclusion order on May 10, 1950 without hearing. Thereafter, until this time, the government has made fruitless efforts to deport Mezei. Twice he was turned over to the French Line for return to France. Each time France refused to accept him. Except for those periods of transit — in July 1950 and November 1950he has been detained at Ellis Island, an elapsed period of almost 21 months. Mezei has brought four earlier writs in this case. Each one was denied, apparently upon advice from the government that it was prepared to effectuate his deportation. At this time the government substantially admits an inability to deport Mezei. England rejects his claimed citizenship and refuses him entry. France, as noted, twice has denied him. The State Department has been negotiating for many months with Hungary for his readmission, but Hungarian sources remain mute. Even were Hungary to admit Mezei, there is considerable question whether he may properly be deported there. Mezei himself has sought entry to at least a dozen countries, but without success. The man apparently has no place to go. Is the government justified in keeping him at Ellis Island, perhaps indefinitely?

Mezei does not contest the government's right to exclude an alien without a hearing where a finding is made that a public hearing would lead to disclosure of confidential information prejudicial to the best interests of the United States. He contends, however, that disclosure of the reasons for his exclusion would not be prejudicial and his present detention without a hearing is illegal. The exclusionary power of the Attorney General was settled by the Supreme Court in U. S. ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, 1950, 338 U.S. 537, 70 S.Ct. 309, 94 L. Ed. 317 where it was held beyond the province of any court, absent express authority in law, to review the determination of the political branch of the government to exclude an alien. This was applied particularly to the case of an alien excluded without a hearing because the Attorney General deemed the disclosure of information on which he based his opinion dangerous to public security. The rule is clearly a harsh one. It is predicated upon the belief that exclusion is purely a political act, performed by the executive or upon his delegated authority. The court has no function in our system of separated powers to challenge such an act. Mezei, understandably, would wish to have the facts of his exclusion brought out in open hearing. Under the Knauff decision this court has no power to award such a hearing. That is a discretionary power of the Attorney General.

The District Court has the power to release an alien from custody who has been detained an unreasonably long time where his deportation cannot be effectuated. U. S. ex rel. Chu Leung v. Shaughnessy, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1950, 88 F.Supp. 91; In re Krajcirovic, D.C.Mass.1949, 87 F.Supp. 379; Staniszewski v. Watkins, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1948, 80 F.Supp. 132; U. S. ex rel. Janavaris v. Nicolls, D.C.Mass.1942, 47 F.Supp. 201. The government grudgingly admits that this may stand as an abstract principle of law but denies its relevance here on two grounds. (1) That Mezei is a security risk properly excluded from the United States and that no authority exists in law for releasing him merely because he has been detained a prolonged period while attempts were made to deport him. (2) That Mezei is not really being detained because he has always been free to leave the country when he wanted. This, in view of the clear documentary evidence that Mezei cannot gain admission anywhere, hardly jibes with the usual cold realism of immigration policies. The government states flatly that an alien applying for admission to the United States (and this includes one who has already arrived on our shores) has no Constitutional rights. I do not agree. The Constitution applies even to aliens on Ellis Island. "Wherever the Constitution of the United States is applicable, and that includes ports of entry, an alien as well as a citizen is guaranteed that he will not be deprived of his liberty without due process". In re Krajcirovic, supra 87 F.Supp. 382.

What constitutes an unreasonable detention is a perplexing matter. Section 154, Title 8 U.S.C.A. provides that "All aliens brought to this country in violation of law shall be immediately sent back * * * to the country whence they respectively came * * * unless in the opinion of the Attorney General immediate deportation is not practicable or proper."

The government insists that there can be no unreasonable detention in the case of an alien held for security reasons. To secure the argument, it is necessary to hurdle several cases in which an alien, detained for an unreasonable period, has been released. In U. S. ex rel. Janavaris v. Nicolls, supra, Judge Wyzanski said in 47 F.Supp. at page 202: "A more important question remains: Whether under the statute giving the district courts power to issue writs of habeas corpus this Court has the power to release from custody an alien who has been detained an unreasonably long period of time by the Department of Justice after it has become apparent that although a warrant for his deportation has been issued, the warrant cannot be effectuated. That this Court has such power is hardly open to question. * * * The theory on which the court is given the power to act is that the warrant of deportation, not having been able to be executed, is functus officio and the alien is being held without any authority of law.

"The issue, therefore, simmers down to this: Has the Department of Justice kept the alien such an unreasonably long period of time that the warrant has lost its efficacy?" Judge Wyzanski found five months detention excessive.

In In re Krajcirovic, supra, 87 F.Supp. 381, Judge Wyzanski bolstered his decision in In re Janavaris. In that case he held a detention period of nine months unreasonable. The alien had been ordered excluded. It was likely that only Czechoslovakia, which he had fled, would take him. There, he was a political refugee, sentenced in absentia to death. The language of the case is pertinent here. "The District Director contends Krajcirovic is not confined because the Department of Justice has given him the option to depart voluntarily...

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  • Jean v. Nelson, 84-5240
    • United States
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    ...the Government's refusal to inform him of the reasons for his continued detention violated due process. United States ex rel. Mezei v. Shaughnessy, 101 F.Supp. 66, 68 (SDNY 1951). The District Court ordered the Government to disclose those reasons but gave it the option of doing so in camer......
  • Shaughnessy v. United States Mezei
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    ...States for permanent residence but ... the government took no action against him in that ... period." United States ex rel. Mezei v. Shaughnessy , 101 F.Supp. 66, 67 (S.D.N.Y. 1951).4 Petitioner's status as an alien on the threshold of initial entry distinguishes him from the petitioner in ......

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