United States v. Portale

Background

An alien woman is alleged to have entered the United States from Great Britain in 1913 and been knowingly harbored in Denver for the purpose of prostitution. The indictment says the defendants failed to file, within thirty days of starting to harbor her, a written statement with the Commissioner General of Immigration listing her name, where she was kept, date and port of entry, age, nationality, parentage, and facts about how she was procured. The charge is brought under the Act of June 25, 1910, which requires every person harboring such a woman who entered within three years from a country party to an international agreement to file the statement; Great Britain was a party to that agreement.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the statute’s reporting duty applied only to people who helped bring the woman into the country, or to every person who harbored her. The lower court had limited the law to those who had "to do" with bringing or sending forth the women, and sustained a demurrer to the indictment on that basis. The opinion rejects that limitation, holding the statute’s plain words—"every person" who harbors—require reporting of any facts within the harborer’s knowledge. The Court noted that immunity for truthful reporting most clearly protects those involved in bringing women in, but it saw no reason to read a narrower duty into a provision meant to aid an international effort to discover a criminal traffic.

Real world impact

The Court reversed the judgment and sent the case back, allowing further proceedings consistent with this interpretation. Practically, more people who house immigrant women for prostitution may be obligated to report relevant facts to immigration authorities, and prosecutions can proceed where a court thought the statute applied only to arrangers. The reversal does not decide guilt or innocence and permits additional action in the lower court consistent with the opinion.