Cite as: 509 U. S. 155 (1993)
Blackmun, J., dissenting
that directly follows the exception: "Provided, however, That . . . the Attorney General . . . . shall have the power and duty to control and guard the boundaries and borders of the United States against the illegal entry of aliens . . . ." There can be no doubt that the Coast Guard is acting as the Attorney General's agent when it seizes and returns undocumented aliens.
Even the challenged Executive Order places the Attorney General "on the boat" with the Coast Guard.10 The Order
purports to give the Attorney General "unreviewable discretion" to decide that an alien will not be returned.11 Discretion not to return an alien is of course discretion to return him. Such discretion cannot be given; Congress removed it in 1980 when it amended the INA to make mandatory ("shall not deport or return") what had been a discretionary function ("The Attorney General is authorized to withhold deportation"). The Attorney General may not decline to follow the command of § 243(h). If she encounters a refugee, she must not return him to persecution.
The laws that the Coast Guard is engaged in enforcing when it takes to the seas under orders to prevent aliens from illegally crossing our borders are laws whose administration has been assigned to the Attorney General by Congress, which has plenary power over immigration matters. Klein-dienst v. Mandel, 408 U. S. 753, 766 (1972). Accordingly, there is no merit to the argument that the concomitant legal restrictions placed on the Attorney General by Congress do not apply with full force in this case.
suspended . . . ." Presidential Proclamation No. 4865, 3 CFR 50, 51 (1981- 1983 Comp.).
10 Of course the Attorney General's authority is not dependent on its recognition in the Order.
11 "[T]he Attorney General, in his unreviewable discretion, may decide that a person who is a refugee will not be returned without his consent."
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