412.11 C 8315/–
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Mexico ( Schoenfeld )
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch No. 4696, of August 19. 1927, transmitting the text and translation of a note dated August 18, from the Mexican Foreign Office, in relation to the recent expulsion from Mexico of Mr. Joseph de Courcy, an American citizen.
In reply, you are informed that a translation of the pertinent portion of the Mexican note was forwarded to the Department of Labor under date of August 29, with a request for a statement as to the procedure followed by that Department in deporting aliens from this country. The Department is now in receipt of a reply dated September 7, 1927,83 stating that in conducting proceedings in connection with aliens arrested in the United States with a view to deportation, provision is made for the presentation, in each case, of specific charges and for representation by counsel when such representation is requested; that [Page 259] the rule governing representation by counsel is, in actual practice, made to include the right to be represented by any one the accused may select; and that facilities are, at all times, afforded aliens under arrest under deportation proceedings to communicate also with friends and relatives. Furthermore, aliens involved in such cases are never held without food or sleeping accommodations, or denied the privilege to communicate with a consular officer of their Government if a request therefor is made.
I may add, in this connection, that the Government of the United States deports aliens only after a hearing, and never deports such aliens except for a violation of a statute of the United States which has been publicly proclaimed.
You are instructed to reply to the Mexican note and to inform the Mexican Foreign Office that this Government has not questioned nor does it now question the Mexican Government’s right, within certain limitations defined and recognized by international law, to expel pernicious or undesirable aliens from its territory. You will add that it is the conviction of your Government, however, that the harsh treatment accorded Mr. de Courcy while he was under detention, against which treatment your Government feels constrained again to make an emphatic protest, and the arbitrary manner in which his forced removal from Mexico was effected, without a hearing, without any known charges having been made against him, and without regard to his convenience and his personal and property interests constitute a violation of his rights as a foreigner domiciled in Mexico.
In response to the inquiry contained in the latter part of the final paragraph of the Mexican note, the Department desires you to advise the Foreign Office of the practice followed by this Government, as above set forth, in the conduct of analogous cases, and to say that your Government sincerely hopes that equally humane treatment will be accorded American citizens by the appropriate Mexican authorities in charge of such expulsion or deportation cases affecting American citizens as may hereafter arise. With this end in view, you will request that the appropriate authorities be given proper and timely instructions covering the matter, in order that American citizens who may in the future be subjected to expulsion proceedings in Mexico shall be informed of the charges against them when such information is requested, be given opportunity to be heard, be afforded food and proper sleeping accommodations, and be given opportunity to communicate with the Embassy or the Consulate General during the period of their detention.
In conclusion you may add that, in view of the manner in which such proceedings are conducted by this Government, there can be [Page 260] no need for this Government’s notifying the Mexican Embassy in Washington regarding expulsion or deportation cases involving Mexican citizens, since all pertinent information respecting such cases may readily be conveyed to the nearest Mexican consular officer by the accused or their counsel.85
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