Editorial Note
A draft joint resolution prepared by the Department of State to authorize the President to bring the headquarters agreement into effect was introduced in the Senate by Senators Ives and Wagner, of New York. The Senate added one amendment as follows (the bracketed portions being House amendments to the Senate revision):
“Sec. 6. Nothing in the agreement shall be construed as in any way diminishing, abridging, or weakening the right of the United States [to safeguard its own security and] completely to control the entrance of aliens into any territory of the United States other than the headquarters district and its immediate vicinity [, as to be defined and fixed in a supplementary agreement between the Government of the United States and the United Nations in pursuance of section 13(3) (e) (sic) of the agreement,] and such areas as it is reasonably necessary to traverse in transit between the same and foreign countries. Moreover, nothing in section 14 of the agreement with respect to facilitating entrance into the United States by persons who wish to visit the headquarters district and do not enjoy the right of entry provided in section 11 of the agreement shall be construed to amend or suspend in any way the immigration laws of the United States or to commit the United States in any way to effect any amendment or suspension of such laws.”
The legislative background of the amendment in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was described in Senate Report No. 559 in a section entitled “Principal Issues Considered by the Committee in Connection with the Headquarters Agreement”:
“It is clear that the United States cannot tell the other member nations who should or who should not represent them at the seat of the United Nations and cannot claim any right of veto over the Secretary-General’s appointment of personnel to the staff of the United Nations. In general, the United States, as host country, must permit access to the headquarters on the part of all persons who have legitimate business with the Organization. This involves inevitably the admission of a number of aliens, some of whom would not normally be admissible under immigration laws of the United States.
“The principal problem considered by the committee was how this right of access to the headquarters could be granted in a manner which would not prejudice the security of the United States against infiltration on the part of subversive alien elements.
“The agreement, in sections 11 and 13, grants the right of entry of representatives of members, officials of the United Nations, and other persons having business with the United Nations. Two important protections are, however, provided in section 13: (1) The United States may require such persons to have visas and may limit the visas which it issues so as to be valid only for transit to the headquarters district and sojourn in its immediate vicinity; (2) in case any such persons abuse their privileges in activities outside their official capacity, they become subject to deportation, In order to be sure that this remedy will be applied in a fair manner, it is provided that deportation proceedings are to be subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, that full hearings must be granted to the interested parties, and that the limited class of persons enjoying diplomatic status may be required to leave only in accordance with diplomatic procedure.
“It is the opinion of the committee that these provisions adequately protect the security of the United States and that the United Nations could not be expected to maintain its headquarters in this country if the United States were to impose restrictions upon access to the headquarters district which would interfere with the proper functioning of the Organization.
“In order to remove any doubt as to the meaning of these provisions, the committee adopted an amendment to Senate Joint Resolution 144 making it clear that there is no amendment, or obligation to amend, the immigration laws in any way except to give effect to the rights referred to above.”
Senate Joint Resolution 144 was approved by President Truman on August 4 as Public Law 357; for text of the joint resolution and text of the headquarters agreement, see Department of State Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS) No. 1676, or 61 Stat. 756. Relevant Congressional documentation, 80th Congress, 1st session, includes Senate Report No. 522, Senate Report No. 559, House Document No. 376, and House Report No. 1093.