ALIENS - DEPORTATION - CRIMES INVOLVING MORAL TURPITUDE

The petitioner in this case was an alien who had been convicted of smuggling into and concealing within the United States illegally imported alcohol. He was sentenced to serve a year and a day in a federal penitentiary. Upon his release, he was arrested and ordered deported under the Immigration Act of 1917, as an alien who after February 5, 1917 was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of more than a year because of conviction in this country of a crime involving moral turpitude, committed within five years after his entry to the United States. Petitioner seeks release on habeas corpus on the ground that the crime for which he was sentenced did not involve moral turpitude.

Held, that the petition should be denied. Smuggling goods into the United States with intent to defraud the revenue is dishonest and fraudulent and involves moral turpitude. Guarneri v. Kessler, (C. C. A. 5th, 1938) 98 F. (2d) 580.