Cite as: 509 U. S. 155 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
gee will be returned without his consent." Exec. Order No. 12324, 3 CFR § 2(c)(3), p. 181 (1981-1983 Comp.).9
In the ensuing decade, the Coast Guard interdicted approximately 25,000 Haitian migrants.10 After interviews conducted on board Coast Guard cutters, aliens who were identified as economic migrants were "screened out" and promptly repatriated. Those who made a credible showing of political refugee status were "screened in" and trans-9 That proviso reflected an opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel that Article 33 of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees imposed some procedural obligations on the United States with respect to refugees outside United States territory. That opinion was later withdrawn after consideration was given to the contrary views expressed by the legal adviser to the State Department. See App. 202-230.
10 Id., at 231. In 1985 the District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the interdiction program, specifically finding that § 243(h) provided relief only to Haitians in the United States. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc. v. Gracey, 600 F. Supp. 1396, 1406. On appeal from that holding, the Court of Appeals noted that "over 78 vessels carrying more than 1800 Haitians have been interdicted. The government states that it has interviewed all interdicted Haitians and none has presented a bona fide claim to refugee status. Accordingly, to date all interdictees have been returned to Haiti." Haitian Refugee Center v. Gracey, 257 U. S. App. D. C. 367, 370, 809 F. 2d 794, 797 (1987). The Court affirmed the judgment of the District Court on the ground that the plaintiffs in that case did not have standing, but in a separate opinion Judge Edwards agreed with the District Court on the merits. He concluded that neither the United Nations Protocol nor § 243(h) was "intended to govern parties' conduct outside of their national borders.
. . . . . "The other best evidence of the meaning of the Protocol may be found in the United States' understanding of it at the time of accession. There can be no doubt that the Executive and the Senate decisions to adhere were made in the belief that the Protocol worked no substantive change in existing immigration law. At that time '[t]he relief authorized by § 243(h) [8 U. S. C. § 1253(h)] was not . . . available to aliens at the border seeking refuge in the United States due to persecution.' " Id., at 413-414, 809 F. 2d, at 840-841 (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part) (footnotes omitted). See INS v. Stevic, 467 U. S., at 415.
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