It is a pity that these bills have been jumbled together in what seems to be a hopeless confusion. Had deliberation commensurate with the importance of this subject guided their presentation. I believe we could have evolved out of this tangle of immigration theories some measure that would have been of benefit and utility to the American people. Let me say briefly in regard to the bill which I introduced that it had and has the united indorsement of all the American associations and federations of labor. It does not create any new class of excluded immigrants. It simply aims to enforce existing laws by the imposition of penalties for violations of those statutes. Atthis point I desire to observe in regard to the immigration bureaus at the various ports of this country. and especially in New York City. that I agree with the statement made yesterday by the gentleman from Michigan that if there is one bright spot in the dark gloom of present Democratic misrule it is the administration of the immigration laws. But. under the wording of the present statutes. United States district attorneys refuse to arraign violators of these enactments. and the bill which I presented for consideration provides a remedy for that condition of affairs and enables the district attorney to carry out in spirit and letter those provisions of immigration statutes which protect American labor. And. Mr. Speaker. I say to the Republican party. as a loyal member of that party. that these laboring people of the United States do not ask for the exclusion 6f any new classes of immigrants. They simply ask for the better enforcement of the existing laws. They came to a Democratic Congress and asked for bread but received a stone.
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immigrants immigration