The United States Supreme Court and the Protection of Refugees

The problem of refugees is a worldwide phenomenon. The twentieth century has been called the century of refugees. Its history is replete with mass displacements of peoples fleeing war, political oppression, human rights deprivations or disasters of one kind or another. Currently, there are about seventeen million refugees around the world. The specter of masses of refugees huddled at national boundaries seeking asylum is common to the experience of many nations. The United States, being a nation of immigrants and a land of opportunity, is certainly not immune from such pressures, as most recently illustrated by the exodus of the Haitian boat people destined for U.S. shores