In the case of Jean et al. v. Nelson, Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service, et al., 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that immigration officials did not have discretion to discriminate on the basis of nationality when deciding whether to release undocumented immigrants from detention while they awaited deportation proceedings. The case involved a group of Haitian refugees who were denied parole after arriving in Florida by boat without proper documentation. They claimed that Cuban refugees in similar situations were routinely granted parole due to their nationality which was discriminatory against them as Haitians under equal protection principles embodied in the Due Process Clause of Fifth Amendment. The court held that federal regulations governing parole decisions do not permit discrimination based on race or nationality and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.

In the dissenting opinion for Jean et al. v. Nelson, Justice Harry Blackmun argued that the majority's decision to remand the case back to lower courts was unnecessary and only served to delay a final resolution on an urgent matter of public interest. He contended that there was sufficient evidence in front of them already showing discriminatory treatment by immigration officials against Haitian refugees compared with Cuban refugees, which violated equal protection principles under U.S Constitution’s Fifth Amendment due process clause. Furthermore, he criticized the majority for ignoring established legal precedent regarding noncitizens' rights within U.S territory and failing to address whether these constitutional protections extend beyond citizens or not at all.