Rabang v. Boyd

1957-07-08

Headline: Upheld deportation of a long‑resident Filipino: Court rules people born in the Philippines became aliens after 1946, allowing deportation for a 1951 federal narcotics conviction.

Holding: The Court held that persons born in the Philippine Islands became aliens on July 4, 1946, and that a 1951 federal narcotics conviction made this long‑resident Filipino deportable under the 1931 Act.

Real World Impact:

Makes people born in the Philippines before 1946 subject to deportation as aliens.
Allows deportation after a federal narcotics conviction even for long‑time residents.
Affirms use of established immigration procedures to carry out deportation.

Topics: deportation, immigration status, Philippine independence, criminal convictions, narcotics law

Summary

Background

A man born in the Philippine Islands in 1910 was admitted for permanent residence in the continental United States in 1930 and lived here since. In 1951 he pleaded guilty to violating federal narcotics laws. The Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered him deported to the Philippines under a 1931 law that authorizes deportation of "any alien" convicted of certain narcotics offenses. The district court and the Court of Appeals denied his challenge, and the Supreme Court agreed to decide the legal question.

Reasoning

The main question was whether he was an "alien" under the 1931 law even though he was a U.S. national at birth and entered the United States when the Philippines were a U.S. territory. The Court looked to treaty and statutory history and to the Philippine Independence Act. That Act said that when U.S. sovereignty ended on July 4, 1946, U.S. immigration laws would apply to people born in the Islands "to the same extent as in the case of other foreign countries." The Court held that this language made persons born in the Philippines aliens as of that date, regardless of their residence. The Court also rejected arguments that an unstated requirement of "entry" or earlier cases prevented deportation, and treated references to earlier immigration statutes as procedural steps only.

Real world impact

The ruling means that people born in the Philippine Islands who were U.S. nationals before 1946 became aliens when the Philippines became independent and can be deported under U.S. immigration laws for qualifying crimes. The decision affirmed the deportation order in this case and allows deportation to proceed on the stated grounds.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Douglas dissented, arguing that the 1931 law implicitly applied only to aliens who had made an "entry" from a foreign country and therefore should not cover Filipinos who came to the United States while the Islands were a U.S. territory.