Immigration, naturalization and the Constitution.

Abstract

This essay focuses upon major decisions made by the US government affecting aliens and the constitutional bases for them. These include: 1) the admission and exclusion of aliens, 2) the deportation of aliens, 3) the rights of aliens within the US, and 4) naturalization and denaturalization. The recourse to the extra-constitutional doctrine of sovereignty by the Supreme Court was the source of the plenary power of the Congress over immigration, thus denying the authority of the judiciary to extend the guarantees of due process of law and the equal protection of the law to aliens. The courts in the last 2 decades have assumed a more activist posture with respect to the rights of aliens, extending a greater degree of constitutional protection to the security of acquired citizenship and to the rights of due process and equal protection of foreigners, even to undocumented aliens.