Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/342

338 opinion of the Supreme Court handed down by Justice Day on January 7, 1907, in the case of Charles Zartirian vs. George B. Billings, Commissioner of Immigration at Boston. Here the Supreme Court decided that a naturalized citizen's child was not a citizen and was properly excluded because it was suffering from trachoma, a disease subject to mandatory exclusion. The opinion stated that

The petitioner's child, having been born and remained abroad, clearly does not come under the statute. She was debarred from entering the United States by the action of the authorized officials, and, never having legally landed, of course could not have dwelt in the United States. Congress has not said that an alien child who has never dwelt in the United States coming to join a naturalized parent, may land, when afflicted with a dangerous contagious disease.

The Zartirian case and the Palayes case are just parallel. The Supreme Court decided that the Zartirian child should be excluded. The Secretary of Commerce and Labor decided that the Palayes child should be admitted.

Space is insufficient to dwell further on the loopholes in the deportation of these cases, or to discuss possible improvements in the deportation law. A factor which is far from inconsiderable is that many cases legally subject to deportation, within three years of landing, are not reported to the proper officials. It is earnestly to be hoped that a thoroughly efficient primary medical examination of arriving immigrants may be augmented and reenforced by a strict administration of the deportation laws.

The subject of public health is of most pertinent and vital interest. Immigration is an influential factor in the physical, mental and social health of the United States. From the standpoint of the public health, it is absolutely essential to exclude unsound immigrants, and the second line of defence against them is a rigid administration of the deportation law. How best to exclude unsound immigrants is a new and pressing problem of the public health.