Cite as: 509 U. S. 155 (1993)
Blackmun, J., dissenting
tend to legislate extraterritorially has less force—perhaps, indeed, no force at all—when a statute on its face relates to foreign affairs. What the majority appears to be getting at, as its citation to United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U. S. 304 (1936), suggests, ante, at 188, is that in some areas, the President, and not Congress, has sole constitutional authority. Immigration is decidedly not one of those areas. " '[O]ver no conceivable subject is the legislative power of Congress more complete . . . .' " Fiallo v. Bell, 430 U. S. 787, 792 (1977), quoting Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. v. Stranahan, 214 U. S. 320, 339 (1909). And the suggestion that the President somehow is acting in his capacity as Commander in Chief is thwarted by the fact that nowhere among Executive Order No. 12807's numerous references to the immigration laws is that authority even once invoked.17
If any canon of construction should be applied in this case, it is the well-settled rule that "an act of congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains." Murray v. Schooner Charming Betsy, 2 Cranch 64, 117-118 (1804). The majority's improbable construction of § 243(h), which flies in the face of the international obligations imposed by Article 33 of the Convention, violates that established principle.
III
The Convention that the Refugee Act embodies was enacted largely in response to the experience of Jewish refugees in Europe during the period of World War II. The tragic consequences of the world's indifference at that time are well known. The resulting ban on refoulement, as broad as the humanitarian purpose that inspired it, is easily appli-17 Indeed, petitioners are hard pressed to argue that restraints on the Coast Guard infringe upon the Commander in Chief's power when the President himself has placed that agency under the direct control of the Department of Transportation. See Declaration of Admiral Leahy, App. 233.
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