Speech #530032131

If gentlemen will give me their careful attention I will endeavor to explain as clearly as I possibly can its provisions and the necessity for its enactment. I will ask for the reading of the report of the committee when I have indulged in afew remarks by way of explanation. Our naturalization laws are exceedingly loose and uncertain. and subject to abuse. especially in the matter of negligence on the part of a great many of the courts which now under the law have the right to naturalize aliens. Gentlemen will find mentioned in the report some of the many abuses in the administration of the courts in respect to naturalization. The first question which we should consider is this: Is it worth anything to be an American citizen? Should there be any formalities about it? If there shlould be. then they ought to partake of a certain solemnity. and the law should require inquiries to be made so that the courts may know and the public may realize that any alien who is declared to be a citizen is worthy of the honor. I have been a member of committees which have for years past investigated both the question of immigration and the vioation of the naturalization laws. and great volumes of testimony have been reported touching both these questions. volumes which are accessible to every member. The greatest abuses have grown out of the fact that under our present law an alien may readily declare his intention to become a citizen. and in most of the States he is at once endowed with all or very nearly all of the privileges of a citizen. And inmany cases persons who have thus declared their intention. neglect to take out final papers of naturalization. A few years ago we had a heated contest in this Hall over the eligibility of a member from the Stateof Indiana who when he came to this country many years before declared his intention. and the question was whether he was eligible in the absence of naturalization papers. or if he ever did go through the final process necessary to obtain them in a regular and proper manner. This question is shown tote one of vast importance in another respect. Our Government during a period of a good many years has been in many cases involved in controversies through our State Department with foreign governments as to the status of aliens who have been here and become partially naturalized. This bill is not all I would like it to be. It is usual for the courts of the United States alone to be required to enforce the laws of the United States. and the first bill of this character I ever introduced here committed the power of naturalization to the Federal courts alone. But the Committee on the Judiciary. which has considered this measure not only in this Congress but in several previous ones. concluded that for the convenience of aliens who frequently reside many miles from where there is any United States court. it would be better to embrace in the provisions of the bill several of the State courts. deeming their action perfectly safe and reliable. The provision of the bill in that respect is a restriction. It commits that power to the courts of the United States and to a sufficient number of State courts of recordcourts next highest to the courts of appealcourts which have a clerk and a seal. It is believed that no one will be inconvenienced by this change. and yet it is considered safe. In some of the State courts that have been intrusted with this jurisdiction some subordinate officer has gone forward with the process of naturalization even in the absence of the judge.