How “Far Gone” Are We Now? Immigration, Security, & American Values, from Justice Jackson’s Time to Our Own

“Congress has ample power to determine whom we will admit to our shores and by what means it will effectuate its exclusion policy. The only limitation is that it may not do so by authorizing United States officers to take without due process of law the life, the liberty or the property of an alien who has come within our jurisdiction; and that means he must meet a fair hearing with fair notice of the charges.  It is inconceivable to me that this measure of simple justice and fair dealing would menace the security of this country. No one can make me believe that we are that far gone.” Justice Robert H. Jackson, dissenting in Shaughnessy, District Director of Immigration & Naturalization v. United States ex rel. Ignatz Mezei, March 16, 1953