In my judgment. the bill is constitutional. In the first place. it has been held time and again that proceedings under the immigration law are civil proceedings and not criminal proceedings. If they are civil proceedings. they are covered by the Administrative Procedure Act. and there is no right to trial by jury. Secondly. any detention under this act is not imprisonment. It is temporary in character and can be terminated at any time when the detained alien is able to arrange with some country to accept him. Furthermore. his detention can be tested in court through the medium of a habeas corpus proceeding. It seems to me that it must be the law that detention is a necessary incident to the undisputed right of deportation which has been repeatedly held to be an inherent and inalienable right of every sovereign and independent nation.
Keywords matched
immigration deportation