Mullin v. Al Otro Lado · ¶150

To begin, the inspection mandate has covered those who arrive at ports, regardless of where their feet are, since well before IIRIRA. Starting in 1917, the Immigration Act mandated that “[a]ll aliens arriving at ports of the United States shall be examined by at least two immigrant inspectors.” Immigration Act, §16, 39 Stat. 886; see §15, id., at 885 (“[U]pon the arrival at a port of the United States of any vessel bringing aliens[,] it shall be the duty of the proper immigration officials to go or to send competent assistants to the vessel and there inspect all such aliens”). This iteration of the inspection mandate did not depend on whether the noncitizen had touched U. S. soil; what mattered was that they were “at” a port. This statute was later amended in 1952, through the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The INA’s inspection mandate stated that the “inspection…

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