222

Opinion of the Court.

rant of the Secretary of Labor, be taken into custody and deported, in the manner provided by law.

Relying on the phrases italicized in the quotation, the Government insists that the section embraces an alien who, after entry, has become a member of an organization, membership in which, at the time of his entry, would have warranted his exclusion, although he has ceased to be a member at the time of his arrest. We hold that the Act does not provide for the deportation of such an alien. This conclusion rests not alone upon the language, but, as well, upon the context and the history of the legislation.

The phrase "at any time" qualifies the verb "found." Thus, if at any time the Secretary finds that at entry the alien was a member, or has thereafter become and is a member, he may be deported. The natural meaning is that, as the alien was excludable for present membership, he is deportable for present membership subsequently acquired. The Government's construction,

which collocates the phrase "at any time" with the phrase "or to have become thereafter" is unnatural and strained. If Congress meant that past membership, of no matter how short duration or how far in the past, was to be a cause of present deportation the purpose could have been clearly stated. The section does not bear this import.

By the first section of the Act, as amended in 1920, aliens are to be excluded who are members of a described organization. The section does not require the exclusion of those who have been in the past, but are no longer, members. When the Congress came to provide for deportation, instead of again enumerating and defining the various classes of aliens who might be deported, it provided that if at any time it should be found that an alien had been admitted and, at the time of admission, was a member of any of the proscribed classes, or had thereafter become such, he should be deported. It is not to be

supposed that past membership, which does not bar admission, was intended to be a cause of deportation. And the fact that naturalization is denied to an alien only on the ground that he "is a member of or affiliated with any organization entertaining" disbelief in or opposition to organized government, and not for past membership or affiliation, lends added force to this view.

In the absence of a clear and definite expression, we are not at liberty to conclude that Congress intended that any alien, no matter how long a resident of this country, or however well disposed toward our Government, must be deported, if at any time in the past, no matter when, or under what circumstances, or for what time, he was a member of the described organization. In the absence of such expression we conclude that it is the present membership, or present affiliation-a fact to be determined on evidence-which bars admission, bars naturalization, and requires deportation. Since the statute deals not only with membership in an organization of the described class, but with affiliation therewith and, as well, with belief and teaching, it enables the Secretary of Labor, as trier of the facts, fully to investigate and to find the true relation, belief and activity of the alien under investigation.

The legislative history of the statute supports this conclusion. By Act of March 3, 1903, Congress directed the exclusion of "anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States, . . ." and also of any "person who disbelieves in or who is opposed to all organized government, or who is a member of or affiliated with any organization entertaining and teaching such disbe

*Act of June 29, 1906, c. 3592, § 7, 34 Stat. 596, 598.

99 10

lief in or opposition to all organized government . . The only section authorizing deportation of such persons is directed to an alien found to have entered in violation of the Act, if proceeded against within three years after entry." These provisions were reënacted without alteration in the Act of February 20, 1907.12

13

The first legislation authorizing deportation of persons who had entered lawfully is H. R. 6060, enacted by the 63rd Congress but vetoed by President Wilson January 28, 1915.13 This bill required deportation of "any alien who within five years after entry shall be found advocating or teaching" the defined doctrines. It also altered existing law in respect of deportation of those who had entered illegally to provide that "at any time within five years after entry, any alien who at the time of entry was a member of one or more of the classes excluded by law" should be deported.

A bill, in substance the same, was introduced in the 64th Congress and enacted February 5, 1917, over Presidential veto.14 While this measure was in course of passage, the Chairman of the House Committee in charge of it moved, on behalf of the Committee, to amend § 19 by inserting the phrase "at any time" so that the section should provide for deportation of "any alien who at any time after entry shall be found advocating or teaching" forcible overthrow of the government. The Act, as adopted, was in this form. The purpose of the amendment was to make plain that no time limit was fixed for deportation of aliens found advocating the doctrine.15

13

House Document No. 1527, 63rd Cong., 3rd Sess.

1439 Stat. 874.

15 See 53 Cong. Rec. Part. 5, p. 5165, 64th Cong., 1st Sess.; Sen. Rep. 352, p. 14, 64th Cong., 1st Sess. to accompany H. R. 10384.

Opinion of the Court.

307 U.S.

The Act of 1917 was amended by that of October 16, 1918, here under consideration, which, by its title, purported to apply to "aliens who are members of the anarchistic and similar classes. . .

Section 1 enlarged one of the classes of excludable aliens by the addition of the words "aliens who are members of or affiliated with any organization that entertains a belief in, teaches or advocates the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States. . . . Section 2 modified the earlier Act in respect of deportation, both in form and substance. The provision for deportation of those who, at the time of entry, were members of one of the proscribed classes was retained, but the five year period of limitation within which deportation might be had was eliminated.16 The provision for deportation of aliens of anarchistic and similar classes was expanded by including as causes of deportation all the causes of exclusion enumerated in § 1 which were themselves much broader than those included in the 1917 Act. Thus, although there was no provision in the Act of 1917 for deportation of aliens who did not personally advocate the proscribed doctrine, but were members of an organization which did, the Act of 1918 embodied such a provision. This alteration, and the elimination of the five year time limitation, were the important changes, relevant to the question under examination, which the Act of 1918 effected in the earlier legislation. These modifications lend no support to the contention that § 2 of the Act of 1918 was intended to make quondam membership a ground of deportation.

Nor is there anything in the formal alteration worked by the Act of 1918 which leads to a different conclusion. Section 19 of the Act of 1917 dealt in distinct clauses with the various classes of aliens who might be deported, speci

16 House Rep. 645, 65th Cong., 2nd Sess.

fying in one clause an alien "who at the time of entry was a member of the classes excluded by law" and, in another clause, an alien "who, at any time after entry, shall be found advocating or teaching" the obnoxious doctrines. Section 2 of the Act of 1918 combined the clauses dealing with the two groups in a single sentence, with a somewhat different locution. We think this consolidation was not intended to alter the substantive law as it theretofore stood.

The only decisions which support the Government's position are those in the Second Circuit." We cannot approve their reasoning or result. It is claimed that the administrative construction has always accorded with the Government's contention in the present case. We cannot find that there has been such a uniform construction as requires an interpretation of the Act in accordance with that view. The administrative construction seems to have been in favor of the respondent's view until after the decision in the Yokinen case,18 and the construction seems to have been changed in deference to the decision in that case.1

19

Our reading of the statute makes it unnecessary to pass upon the conflicting contentions of the parties concerning the adequacy of the evidence before the Secretary concerning the purposes and aims of the Communist Party or the propriety of the court's taking judicial notice thereof.

"United States ex rel. Yokinen v. Commissioner of Immigration, 57 F. 2d 707; United States ex rel. Mannisto v. Reimer, 77 F. 2d 1021.

"House Rep. 504, p. 9, 66th Cong., 2nd Sess. Hearings Communist and Anarchistic Deportation Cases, H. R. 66th Cong., 2nd Sess. Subcommittee of Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, April 21, 24, 1920, p. 17.

19

'See letter of Secretary of Labor embodied in Senate Rep. 769, 75th Cong., 1st Sess.

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