US vs Balsys

Facts:

 Respondent Aloyzas Balsys is a resident alien living in Woodhaven, New York,

 Balsys was subpoenaed by the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) to testify
about his wartime activities between 1940 and 1944 and his subsequent immigration to the
United States.
 When OSI issued a subpoena requiring Balsys to testify at a deposition, he appeared and gave his
name and address, but he refused to answer any other questions, such as those directed to his
wartime activities in Europe between 1940—1945 and his immigration to the United States in
1961.
 On appeal from an appellate court's reversal of a district court ruling granting OSI's subpoena
enforcement petition, the Supreme Court granted the United States certiorari.

Issue: Whether or not fear of foreign prosecution is sufficient ground to justify the invocation of the Firth
Amendment privilege against self-incrimination

Held: NO

 the Court held that although resident aliens are entitled to the same Fifth Amendment protections
as citizen "persons" the risk of their deportation is not sufficient to sustain a self-incrimination
privilege intended to apply only to the United States government.
 The Court explained that since the Fifth Amendment does not bind foreign governments, and that
would not be subject to domestic enforcement of immunity-for-testimony deals, one could not
assert a self-incrimination protection against possible prosecution at their hands.