811.2222 (1940)/5078
The Secretary of State to the Mexican Ambassador (Castillo Nájera)
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to His Excellency the Ambassador of Mexico and has the honor to refer further to the Ambassador’s note no. 4195 of July 20, 1943 concerning the selective service status of Mexican nationals who departed from the United States prior to May 16, 1942.21
This matter was referred to the Director of Selective Service, who has now informed the Department as follows:
“We enclose a copy of Local Board Memorandum No. 112 issued by this Headquarters and invite attention to paragraph 1 of Part V which provides that local boards are instructed to cancel the registration of nondeclarant alien registrants who left the United States prior to May 16, 1942, and have not returned. The memorandum attached is the only instruction which has been issued to local boards on the subject generally.”
The Director of Selective Service adds that he does not believe that the provision mentioned will entitle a Mexican national who lived in the United States after October 16, 1940, and who left this country prior to May 16, 1942, to have his registration canceled and be issued an Alien’s Certificate of Nonresidence (Form 303), if he retained property in this country or regularly crossed the border after leaving. Persons in this status did not leave the United States permanently and do not come within the provisions of paragraph 1 of Part V of Local Board Memorandum No. 112.
The Director of Selective Service further states that information has been received from State Directors in certain States in the Southwest area of this country advising that various registrants, who are Mexican citizens, have established a residence across the border in Mexico but continue to attend to their businesses in the United States. [Page 412] A person in this situation, he states, cannot be considered as a nonresident of the United States for the purposes of Selective Service and must comply with all laws, regulations and orders of the Selective Service System.
A copy of local Board Memorandum No. 112, to which the Director of Selective Service referred, is enclosed.22