L/UNA files, “Privileges & Immunities, General, 1944–1954”
Memorandum by the Assistant Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs (Meeker)1
Subject:
- Section 247 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
1. During the last few days, the Legal Department of the United Nations Secretariat has brought to the attention of the U.S. Mission in New York some additional instances of difficulty arising out of Section 247 in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The Legal Department states that in the last ten days three individuals covered by Section 11 of the Headquarters Agreement have been refused regular entry into the United States because they would not sign the waiver form (I–508) under Section 247. These three cases occurred at New York. Two of the individuals are Secretariat employees: Mrs. Lucienna Erville and Mr. Lyulph Stanley; the third is a member of the Belgian Mission in New York, Mr. Jacques Errera. In each of these cases, after considerable delay, the individuals were admitted upon signing a parole agreement. Under the parole agreement the individual [Page 240] is subject to call, to periodic reporting to the immigration authorities, and to subsequent hearing. In the cases of Mrs. Erville and Mr. Errera, hearings before a board of inquiry have been scheduled for Monday, March 2, and Wednesday, March 4. It is not known what action will be taken at these hearings.
The United Nations Legal Department has also called to the attention of the U.S. Mission in New York this case of Mrs. Erika Kuepfer, a Secretariat employee. Mrs. Kuepfer, holding a valid reentry permit, presented herself at Miami on February 7, 1953 for admission to the United States. She was denied admission unless she would execute a waiver form. She asked to sign a parole agreement instead, but was informed that it would be necessary to detain her until she executed the waiver. Mrs. Kuepfer and her husband were thereafter confined in a Miami hotel until she would sign Form 508. She asked to write upon the form a reservation of the position of the Secretary-General, her husband having telephoned to UN officials in New York. Mrs. Kuepfer was not permitted to write this reservation on the form, but was told that a statement in this regard would be appended to the form on a separate sheet of paper.
2. Yesterday a Mr. MacDonald of the Department of Justice telephoned me regarding Section 247. He said that he was in Hersel Plaine’s office over there, and that the State Department’s correspondence on the subject of Section 247 was assigned to him. He wished to ask various questions about the State Department memo-random attached to our letter of January 8.2 He said that the issues were very difficult and that he did not know what could be done in replying to the State Department’s letters. He said that for the moment he could only refer the tax aspect of the matter to the Treasury, to ascertain their views.
I asked Mr. MacDonald if the Justice Department could not hold up the enforcement of Section 247 until they had given us answers as to the effect which waivers under the section would have. He said this seemed to him a reasonable procedure, but that he was not in a position to do anything in this regard. I said that the Department of State urgently needed answers to the questions which we had posed earlier, in order that the situation might be clarified for the foreign governments and international organizations concerned, since we were receiving an increasing flow of protests from the latter. Mr. MacDonald said that he did not see any answer, and thought that perhaps the best thing would be for all individuals simply to sign the waiver, with the effects and consequences of the waiver left for determination in subsequent litigation.