United States v. Nord Deutscher Lloyd
Headline: Court reverses lower ruling and holds that shipping companies who keep return fares for deported passengers violate immigration law, exposing carriers to criminal prosecution and protecting excluded immigrants from extra charges.
Holding: The Court held that a shipping company which, upon finding passengers were unlawfully brought into the country, kept the paid return fare with intent to charge for return travel, violating the immigration law and subject to prosecution in New York.
- Makes shipping companies criminally liable for keeping return fares for excluded immigrants.
- Allows prosecutions in the U.S. where unlawful retention of fares and intent occurred.
- Prevents carriers profiting by transporting people who cannot lawfully enter.
Summary
Background
A transportation company sold round-trip steerage tickets from Bremen to New York and received 150 rubles for return passage. Some passengers were later found to have been unlawfully brought into the United States. The Government charged the company with violating a provision of the Immigration Act of 1907 that requires carriers to maintain and return excluded immigrants at the carrier’s expense and forbids charging or securing payment for the return trip.
Reasoning
The Court explained the law is aimed at vessel owners, not the immigrants, to deter carriers from profiting by transporting people who cannot enter. The justices said contracts made abroad can have legal effect in the United States, and that keeping money paid overseas—when the carrier knew the passengers were excluded and intended to charge for their return—was the same as an affirmative act violating the statute. Because the indictment alleged the company retained the fare in New York with intent to charge for the return trip, the company could be prosecuted there. For those reasons the Court reversed the lower court’s judgment.
Real world impact
The decision makes clear carriers must return excluded passengers at their own cost and may not keep or enforce return fares paid earlier. Shipping companies face criminal liability if they retain fares with intent to charge return travel after learning passengers are excluded. The ruling enforces the statute’s goal of preventing carriers from making transport of excluded immigrants more profitable and protecting those immigrants from added expenses.
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