Under our treaty regulations with most of the European powers we are required. if we observe those treaties. to admit citizens from those countries upon the same terms and conditions on which they admit our citizens. for purposes of trade. business. visiting. etc. Without violating those treaties we can not exclude any person coming from any of those countries who says that he is coming here for the purpose of business. If an Italian organgrinder says that he is coming to the United States to prosecute his business he can not be quarantined. but the man who states that he is coming here as an immigrant to settle will be. This amendment puts it in the powerof any man to escape all quarantine regulations by subterfuge. He need only deny that he is an immigrant. I believe. as suggested by the gentleman from New York. that we ought to pass a law which will enable our Government to suspend absolutely. if necessary. not only immigration but interceurse with infected ports for the time being. I believe it proper to give the President power to suspend immigration from infected countries for a year or for any length of time whichmay be required. But I do not cencede that all the danger comes from immigration. I want to see quarantine regulations that apply to all. An amendment of the sort now proposed. which would enabe the very class of persons whom we are seeking to exclude from the country to come in without regard to auarantine restrictions by their simply resorting to the subterfuge of saying that they are not immigrants. would be. to my imind. preposterous. This amendment. if adopted. would place the execution of our whole scheme of protection in the hands of the steamship companies themselves. [Here the hammer fell.]
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immigrants immigration immigrant