Quarantine laws are based upon the incipient fact. and the necessary fact. that a foreign vessel should reach or come within the jurisdiction of the United States. As a matter of course. so long as that vessel is outside of our jurisdiction no law of Congress or of a State or municipality could have an extra territorial effect upon it. It is impossible to conceive of a quarantine unless you admit that the foreign vessel has come within the jurisdiction of our country. .Therefore. although the choice of the word may not be exactly appropriate. it is absurd to hold that the quarantine authorities have the right to prohibit immigration entirely. The two powers must be. in the very.nature of the case. absolutely and radically distinct. The President of the United States. when he exercises that extraordinary power. says to the whole world. "You shall not come within the jurisdiction of this country. there shall be absolute nonintercourse in the interest of the health and the lives of the people of the United States." A quarantine law. upon the other hand. says. "You may come within the jurisdiction of the United States. but when you do you shall be subject to certain regulations. and until those regulations are complied with your passengers shall not be landed upon our shores." Therefore. I hold it is logically and absolutely necessary. if we desire to create this power to exclude immigration. that the seventh section of this bill shall be retained.
Keywords matched
immigration