Anastasio Lawrence Amaya v. United States

Striving to stem the swelling tide of “wetbacks” — illegal immigrants from Mexico — that is sweeping into the United States, for years American immigration authorities have progressively tightened their vigilance over the ramparts they watch.

“Pushed by swollen population, inflated prices, and unemployment,” says an article in the Stanford Law Review, “pulled by the promise of work at a liv ing wage, [the wetbacks] are pouring across the border in what has become a full-scale invasion."

This invasion, the article continues, "in its current proportions constitutes a critical threat to the health, safety and general welfare of the people of the border states.”

Even this lightly-limned background will perhaps assist us in better understanding the legal as well as the sociological problems implicit in the instant case.

1. Statement of the Case

On August 22, 1956, the appellant and Dan Casias were indicted on the charge that they “did forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate and interfere with William A. Sherrill, an immigration officer, as the defendants then and there well knew, engaged in the performance of his official duties.” The statute alleged to have been…