§258 — Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse | U.S. Code

Summary

If the person arrested proves they are a United States citizen, they must be released right away and left to the normal U.S. legal process. If they are not shown to be a U.S. citizen, and a judge looking at the documents from section 257 finds enough initial evidence that the matter is only about the ship’s internal order and discipline, or that it does not directly affect U.S. laws or the rights and duties of any U.S. citizen, the judge must either put the person in a lawful U.S. prison or, at the judge’s choice, give them to the ship’s master or chief officer to be under that officer’s control and the consular authority of the ship’s nation instead of U.S. courts. The consular officers who asked for the arrest must pay the costs of the arrest and detention. No one may be held for more than two months after arrest. After two months the person must be set free and cannot be arrested again for the same cause. This law does not allow arresting or imprisoning officers or seamen who desert or are charged with desertion from foreign merchant ships while in the United States, its Territories, or possessions, nor does it allow using local legal authorities to help with such arrests or imprisonments.

Title 22, §258

Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

If, on such examination, it is made to appear that the person so arrested is a citizen of the United States, he shall be forthwith discharged from arrest, and shall be left to the ordinary course of law. But if this is not made to appear, and such court, judge, or magistrate judge finds, upon the papers referred to in section 257 of this title, a sufficient prima facie case that the matter concerns only the internal order and discipline of such foreign vessel, or whether in its nature civil or criminal, does not affect directly the execution of the laws of the United States, or the rights and duties of any citizen of the United States, he shall forthwith, by his warrant, commit such person to prison, where prisoners under sentence of a court of the United States may be lawfully committed, or, in his discretion, to the master or chief officer of such foreign vessel, to be subject to the lawful orders, control, and discipline of such master or chief officer, and to the jurisdiction of the consular or commercial authority of the nation to which such vessel belongs, to the exclusion of any authority or jurisdiction in the premises of the United States or any State thereof. No person shall be detained more than two months after his arrest, but at the end of that time shall be set at liberty and shall not again be arrested for the same cause. The expenses of the arrest and the detention of the person so arrested shall be paid by the consular officers making the application: Provided, That nothing in this section or section 257 of this title shall authorize the arrest or imprisonment of officers and seamen deserting or charged with desertion from merchant vessels of foreign nations in the United States and Territories and possessions thereof, and the cooperation, aid, and protection of competent legal authorities in effecting such arrest or imprisonment.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 4081 derived from act June 11, 1864, ch. 116, § 2, 13 Stat. 121.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Words “magistrate judge” substituted in text for “magistrate” pursuant to section 321 of Pub. L. 101–650, set out as a note under section 631 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure. Previously, “magistrate” substituted for “commissioner” pursuant to Pub. L. 90–578. See chapter 43 (§ 631 et seq.) of Title 28.

§258 Commitment and discharge