The Right to a Visa?
THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO IMMIGRATE OR RECEIVE A VISA TO VISIT THE UNITED STATES
There is no Constitutional prohibition on Congress’s plenary legal power (meaning absolute control of the subject) in regard to what standards or requirements must be met to immigrate or receive a visa–no limits whatsoever in the Constitution or in Supreme Court rulings. Congress could set a height limit or eye color requirement as absurd as these sound. (Arguments against such limitations are historical or cultural or moral but they are not based on Constitutional law.)
There are no legal limitations on Congress’s power to define the types of persons that come into our country.
The talk about the unconstitutionality of religious tests in regard to immigration is all nonsense. The religious test clause of the Constitution in Art. 6 Section 3 applies EXCLUSIVELY to those seeking public offices.
The power to limit immigration by religion (or any other category) is part of the rational meaning of plenary power.
Those who argue on the basis of the RELIGION clauses of the First Amendment fail to understand that the Bill of Rights (meaning all the amendments) apply only to US citizens and anyone else (legally or illegally here for that matter) residing in the United States. The Bill of Rights does not reach or touch those who are neither citizens or within the jurisdiction of the United States.
A foreign national applying for a visa to our country does not meet these jurisdictional requirements. To hold any other position requires one not to understand the meaning of the words of the Constitution (or care about their meaning).
To believe that the Constitution applies to everyone in the world is to reduce to absurdity the nature of sovereign power that is the logical and necessary substructure of any coherent political order.
