Cheng Fu Sheng and Lin Fu Mei v. Bruce G. Barber, District Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service

This appeal involves construction of Section 6 of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. That section, which is fully set forth in the margin below, directs the Attorney General to report to Congress all eases in which an alien establishes that prior to July 1, 1953, “he lawfully entered the United States as a bona fide nonimmigrant and that he is unable to return to the country of his birth, or nationality, or last residence because of persecution or fear of persecution on account of race, religion, or political opinion” (emphasis supplied) and that he is qualified for admission in other respects not here relevant “except that the quota to which he is chargeable is oversubscribed.” It also provides that the alien in such reported cases must be deported unless Congress, by joint resolution before the end of its next session, grants him “the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.”

Appellants were born in China, joined the Nationalist Chinese Air Force at the end of World War II, and went to Formosa with the Nationalist forces in 1948 and 1949 when the Chinese mainland fell under communist control. Both were members of separate groups of Chinese Nationalist Air…