United States v. de Cadena

Defendants stand indicted for an alleged conspiracy to violate the immigration laws of the United States, to wit: Section 8 of the Immigration Act of 1917, as amended, Public Law 283, 82nd Congress, 2nd Ses *204 sion, approved March 20, 1952; 8 U.S.C.A. § 144 . The indictment is drawn upon the theory that among the acts proscribed by; the statute is that of knowingly transport-, ing within- the United States an alien not duly ..admitted to the United States by an immigration • officer, with the knowledge that such -alien last entered the United-States less than three years prior thereto. 1

At the conclusion of the government’s case defendants moved to dismiss the indictment upon the ground that the statute in question is unconstitutional under the test of the “void for vagueness” 2 doctrine. This constitutional attack is based upon the premise that the meaning of this statute is so uncertain as to render the statute void. 3 '

The due process .clause of the Fifth Amendment requires that “criminal statutes * * * give due notice that an act .has .been made . criminal before it is done * * Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, 230 , 71 S.Ct. .703, 707, 95 L.Ed. 886 , “Every man should…