Speech #630136810

Mr. Chairman. as a matter of fact the records of the committee show that these amendments were at first voted down. The deportation clause of the immigration law is already severe. For instance. if a man comes into this country as a stowaway. or if he comes in as a vagrant. or if he comes in having his ticket paid for by an association or society. he is here illegally. But if he manages to satisfy the immigrant inspectors and is permitted to land in this country. nevertheless. no matter how good a citizen he may prove. in the next three years he is liible to depomtation if the facts ever crop out. That is the law today. and I think it harsh enough. It subjects immigrants whose passage money has been paid by an association or society to the blackmail of the very people responsible for bringing them in. Now. iL is proposed in this first amendment to extend that period to five years. This whole section of the existing law has been tremendously strengthened in this bill already. without the adoption of any one of those amendments. As things are today. if a man comes into this country and afterwards beconmesa criminal. he can not be deported. We tried to get bills through this House allowing him to be deported within three years. The House has always questioned whether a criminal ought to be deported for crimes committed in this country. because it is argued that those crimes may have been committed in consequence of conditions existing here. Nevertheless we have included in this bill this deportation provision for those who become criminals within three years after arrival. Now. the third amendment proposes to increase that period to five years. That is a pretty big jump from the present law. which does not permit a criminal to be deported at all unless he was a criminal before he came here. Under existing law we can not deport people who become public charges after arrival here. unless they become public charges from conditions existing prior to landing. We make no change in that respect. Under the present law prostitutes and procurers may be deported at any time during the rest of their lives. provided they are still aliens. In the law. as we propose it. we retain precisely the same feature. LI--i s3 Mr.