Case Bearing on Powers of Immigration Officials Before Dept. of Justice

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

A request for a review of the case involving the question whether the Immigration Board alone has authority to determine the facts covering temporary residence in the United States of an alien and to fix the terms of such temporary residence, has been received at the Department of Justice from the Department of Labor and the Department of Labor, accordingly, has directed an appeal to be taken, it was announced on November 18.

The Department of Labor asks that the decision of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in the case of Moise Halevy, an alien, who obtained a writ of habeas corpus, be appealed to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. The full text of the statement by the Department of Justice declared:

“A case having an important bearing upon the powers of the immigration officials in the Department of Labor, in dealing with immigration cases that involve the question of the duration of an alien remaining in the country for a temporary purpose, comes to the Department of justice in a request by the Department of Labor that the decision of the United States District Court for the Southern Disrict of New York be taken to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals.

“this case is that of Moise Halevy, an alien who came to the United States for an alleged temporary purpose, but the Immigration Board was not satisfied with his representations and directed his exclusion. He sued out a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and that court sustained the writ, but directed that the alien should file with the Commissioner of Immigration of New York a bond in the sum of $500, conditioned that he would depart from the country in one year from the entry of the court’s order. The Department of Justice has directed that an appeal be taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The issues in the case are whether the Immigration Board alone has authority to determine the facts covering temporary residence and fix the terms under which an alien may remain in this country for a stated period. The immigration authorities contend that this is an administrative question and properly should be handled by the administration of the immigration office, rather than by order of a court which in the nature of things, has not the facilities for determining the facts, as have the immigration officers.”

PROFESSOR ZELIKOVITCH IS ILL WITH PNEUMONIA

Professor G. Zelikowitch, well known Jewish scholar and member of the staff of the “Jewish Daily News,” is seriously ill at Mount Sinai Hospital. Professor Zelikovitch was taken ill on Tuesday with pneumonia. His condition was reported as grave.