Cite as: 509 U. S. 155 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
We hold that neither § 243(h) nor Article 33 of the United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 3 applies to action taken by the Coast Guard on the high seas.
I
Aliens residing illegally in the United States are subject to deportation after a formal hearing.4 Aliens arriving at the border, or those who are temporarily paroled into the country, are subject to an exclusion hearing, the less formal process by which they, too, may eventually be removed from the United States.5 In either a deportation or exclusion proceeding the alien may seek asylum as a political refugee for whom removal to a particular country may threaten his life or freedom. Requests that the Attorney General grant asylum or withhold deportation to a particular country are typically, but not necessarily, advanced as parallel claims in either a deportation or an exclusion proceeding.6 When an alien proves that he is a "refugee," the Attorney General has discretion to grant him asylum pursuant to § 208 of the Act. If the proof shows that it is more likely than not that the alien's life or freedom would be threatened in a particular country because of his political or religious beliefs, under § 243(h) the Attorney General must not send him to that
would be subject to physical persecution on account of race, religion, or political opinion and for such period of time as he deems to be necessary for such reason." 8 U. S. C. § 1253(h) (1964 ed., Supp. IV); see also INS v. Stevic, 467 U. S. 407, 414, n. 6 (1984).
3 Jan. 31, 1967, 19 U. S. T. 6223, T. I. A. S. No. 6577.
4 8 U. S. C. § 1252 (1988 ed. and Supp. IV).
5 8 U. S. C. § 1226. Although such aliens are located within the United States, the INA (in its use of the term exclusion) treats them as though they had never been admitted; § 1226(a), for example, says that the special inquiry officer shall determine "whether an arriving alien . . . shall be allowed to enter or shall be excluded and deported." Aliens subject to either deportation or exclusion are eventually subjected to a physical act referred to as "deportation," but we shall refer, as immigration law generally refers, to the former as "deportables" and the latter as "excludables."
6 See INS v. Stevic, 467 U. S., at 423, n. 18.
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