Lolita I. Alvarez v. District Director of the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

This appeal by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from a decision of the United States District Court for the Central District of California granting a writ of habeas corpus and allowing appellee, Lolita Alvarez, to remain in this country calls into question a forty-nine-year practice recently approved by the United States Supreme Court in Saxbe v. Bustos, 419 U.S. 65 , 95 S.Ct. 272 , 42 L.Ed.2d 231 (1974). Since 1927, under the Bureau of Immigration’s General Order No. 86 and later the Immigration Act of 1952, the INS has allowed “commuter aliens” — citizens of Mexico and Canada who are employed in the United States — to enter this country, daily or seasonally, with only an 1-151 registration card (“green card”) for identification. Granted “special immigrant” status under 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(27)(B), commuter aliens are exempt from ordinary visa and quota requirements.

An immigration judge determined that appellee was not a special immigrant and was deportable under 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (a)(20) as an alien not in possession of a valid immigration visa or other entry document. Reviewing that decision on appellee’s petition for a writ of habeas…