Reading Room Document

Justice Department Responsibility for Refugees Landing in the United States

This memo found that the attorney general could assume custody of refugees landing on U.S. territory by paroling them into the U.S. or by treating the refugees as illegal entrants and detaining them pending deportation. Furthermore, the memo concluded that locating a refugee camp on U.S. territories, the Mariana Islands, or Pacific Islands would have differing effects on the authority of the attorney general to deal with refugees.

August 3, 1979