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under this title, one-half of the crew (crew including all employees of the ship other than officers) shall be citizens of the United States and, thereafter, two-thirds of the crew as above defined shall be citizens of the United States." (45 Stat. 693).

Paragraph fourth of section 4 of the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906 (c. 3592, 34 Stat. 596, 598; U. S. C. title 8, sec. 382), was amended by the Act of May 9, 1918 (c. 69, 40 Stat. 542, 544; U. S. C. title 8, sec. 376), by the addition of the following subdivision:

"Eighth. That every seaman, being an alien, shall, after his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, and after he shall have served three years upon such merchant or fishing vessels of the United States, be deemed a citizen of the United States for the purpose of serving on board any such merchant or fishing vessel of the United States, anything to the contrary in any Act of Congress notwithstanding; but such seaman shall, for all purposes of protection as an American citizen, be deemed such after the filing of his declaration of intention to become such citizen: Provided, That nothing contained in this Act shall be taken or construed to repeal or modify any portion of the Act approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and fifteen (Thirtyeighth Statutes at Large, part one, page eleven hundred and sixty-four, chapter one hundred and fifty-three), being an Act to promote the welfare of American seamen.'

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The Merchant Marine Act, 1928 (45 Stat. 689, 693, 698), does not undertake to define the phrase "citizens of the United States" except in section 703 (b) as to corporations, partnerships, and associations. In using the phrase "citizens of the United States " as to individuals in section 405 (c), Congress used that phrase as it is defined in the Constitution and in existing laws.

Who may be naturalized and upon what conditions and prerequisites, and the extent and scope of the rights conferred by naturalization are matters within the legislative power of Congress. The Naturalization Acts necessarily operate prospectively in so far as they lay down the conditions and prerequisites for acquiring the rights to be conferred. An alien who complies with those conditions and

prerequisites acquires a judicially enforceable right. Tutun v. United States, 270 U. S. 568, 578.

The eighth subdivision quoted, supra, in the Act of May 9, 1918, is in form and substance an exercise of the constitutional power vested in Congress "to establish an uniform rule of naturalization" of aliens. It is a "substantive feature of the naturalization laws." In re Lind, 192 Fed. 209; In re Sutherland, 197 Fed. 841. As such, it confers upon this class of aliens one of the rights or incidents of full citizenship; that is to say, wherever American citizenship is a prerequisite for serving as seamen on "any" vessel of the United States, this class of aliens may enter or remain in that service on the same footing as citizens of the United States. This enactment makes them pro tanto citizens of the United States.

The eighth subdivision of section 4 of the Naturalization Act, above quoted, and Section 405 (c) of the Merchant Marine Act, 1928, as relates to the crew, are not in terms contradictory nor, in my judgment, inconsistent. Indeed, the former seems, upon a just interpretation, to be a complement of the latter. Section 405 (c), supra, is the only existing enactment to which the eighth subdivision, supra, can apply. To refuse to apply it there is to render it nugatory and destroy the operation of the Naturalization Act to that extent. To deny aliens who have earned the rights of citizenship conferred by the eighth subdivision, supra, of the Naturalization Act, employment as members of the crew of American vessels engaged in the ocean mail service is to put them on the same footing as aliens who have never earned those rights. Plainly that would defeat the liberal policy of our naturalization laws toward a deserving class of seamen without any apparent corresponding benefit to our merchant marine.

It seems if Congress while legislating on the subject of shipping intended to amend or repeal the Naturalization Act, it would not have left such an unrelated purpose to mere inference.

I conclude that in prescribing that members of the crew of vessels employed in ocean mail service under the Merchant Marine Act, 1928, shall be "citizens of the United

States," Congress used that phrase as it had itself defined it in applicable existing laws, notably the Naturalization Act, and, therefore, your question should be answered in the affirmative.

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By the Immigration Act of 1924 (43 Stat. 153, 159), the President is required to proclaim on or before April 1, 1929, the national origins quotas which, in accordance with the Act, have been determined and reported to him by the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and Labor.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.
March 14, 1929.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your request of March 9, 1929, for an opinion on those provisions of the Immigration Act of 1924 which fix quotas on the basis of national origins. The question submitted is whether the clause that the President shall proclaim the quotas is mandatory, or leaves it to your discretion to issue the proclamation or not, as you deem best. The pertinent sections of the Act are as follows (chapter 190, 43 Stat. 153, 159; U. S. C. title 8, section 211):

"(b) The annual quota of any nationality for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1927, and for each fiscal year thereafter, shall be a number which bears the same ratio to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920 having that national origin (ascertained as hereinafter provided in this section) bears to the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920, but the minimum quota of any nationality shall be 100.

"(c) For the purpose of subdivision (b) national origin shall be ascertained by determining as nearly as may be, in respect of each geographical area which under section 12 is to be treated as a separate country (except the geographical areas specified in subdivision (c) of section 4) the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920 whose

origin by birth or ancestry is attributable to such geographical area. Such determination shall not be made by tracing the ancestors or descendants of particular individuals, but shall be based upon statistics of immigration and emigration, together with rates of increase of population as shown by successive decennial United States censuses, and such other data as may be found to be reliable.

"(d) For the purpose of subdivisions (b) and (c) the term inhabitants in continental United States in 1920' does not include (1) immigrants from the geographical areas specified in subdivision (c) of section 4 or their descendants, (2) aliens ineligible to citizenship or their descendants, (3) the descendants of slave immigrants, or (4) the descendants of American aborigines.

"(e) The determination provided for in subdivision (c) of this section shall be made by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, jointly. In making such determination such officials may call for information and expert assistance from the Bureau of the Census. Such officials shall, jointly, report to the President the quota of each nationality, determined as provided in subdivision (b), and the President shall proclaim and make known the quotas so reported. Such proclamation shall be made on or before April 1, 1927. If the proclamation is not made on or before such date, quotas proclaimed therein shall not be in effect for any fiscal year beginning before the expiration of 90 days after the date of the proclamation. After the making of a proclamation under this subdivision the quotas proclaimed therein shall continue with the same effect as if specifically stated herein, and shall be final and conclusive for every purpose except (1) in so far as it is made to appear to the satisfaction of such officials and proclaimed by the President, that an error of fact has occurred in such determination or in such proclamation, or (2) in the case provided for in subdivision (c) of section 12. If for any reason quotas proclaimed under this subdivision are not in effect for any fiscal year, quotas for such year shall be determined under subdivision (a) of this section."

By Joint Resolution of March 4, 1927 (chapter 514, 44 Stat. 1455), the Congress amended the Act by substituting 1928 for 1927, and on March 31, 1928, passed a second resolution

(chapter 306, 45 Stat. 400) substituting 1929 for 1928, thus providing that the proclamation shall be made on or before April 1, 1929.

The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, acting jointly, have determined the national origins of the inhabitants of the United States in 1920, and have computed quotas, as provided in the Act. On February 26, 1929, they made their report to you as provided in the Act. Thus in the manner provided by the Act, the quotas have been computed and Congress has fixed the time when they shall become operative. The three Secretaries were charged with the duty of making the computation, and to the President has been given only the function of proclaiming the result. The action of the President is hardly more than an authentication of the findings of the three Secretaries. The proclamation makes formal public record of those findings.

The national origins clauses were inserted when the bill was pending in the Senate. When it went to conference it provided that the three Secretaries should compute and proclaim the quotas, and it required no action by the President. In conference a clause was inserted requiring the President to issue the proclamation, thus making a public record of the findings of the Secretaries.

The Act, as amended, provides that the determination of the quotas shall be made by the three Secretaries, and that they shall jointly report to the President, and that "the President shall proclaim and make known the quotas so reported." It also directs that the proclamation "shall be made on or before April 1, 1929." So far, these directions are absolute in terms and leave to the officers named no option to refrain from executing them.

Then follow two sentences which deal with the situation which would arise should the proclamation not be made on or before the date specified. One is: "If the proclamation is not made on or before such date, quotas proclaimed therein shall not be in effect for any fiscal year beginning before the expiration of 90 days after the date of the proclamation." The other is: "If for any reason quotas proclaimed under this subdivision are not in effect for any fiscal year, quotas for such year shall be determined under subdivision (a) of this section."

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