immigrant
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 279 U.S. 231 - Karnuth v. United States ex rel. Albro · 1929Most cited · 209 citing opinions
The act makes its own definition, which is that 'the term 'immigrant' means any alien departing from any place outside the United States destined for the United States.' The term thus includes every alien coming to this country either to reside permanently or for temporary purposes, unless he can bring himself within one of the exceptions.
How the Supreme Court has restated “immigrant”
Each Supreme Court definition of “immigrant,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “immigrant”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “immigrant” — 319 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1925–1929
- ORIGINAL
An alien entitled to enter the United States 'solely to carry on trade' under an existing treaty of commerce and navigation is not an immigrant within the meaning of the Act, § 3(6), and therefore is not absolutely excluded by section 13.
An 'immigrant' is defined in section 3 as 'any alien departing from any place outside the United States destined for the United States,' with certain exceptions, none of which describes the present applicants.