ALIENS - DEPORTATION - STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

The petitioner was held for deportation under a statute requiring deportation of any alien who at any time after entering the United States is found to have been at the time of entry or to have become thereafter a member of any one of previously enumerated classes of aliens who may be excluded. The circuit court of appeals in denying deportation based its decision on the fact that the evidence was insufficient, since it was not proven that the Communist Party was an organization that believes in or advocates the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States. Held, the statute does not require deportation of an alien who after entry has become a member of such organization, but who prior to arrest has ceased to be a member. Kessler v. Strecker, (U. S. 1939) 59 S. Ct. 694