Speech #630424145

Mr. Speaker. section 19 of the pending immigration bill is so ambiguous and uncertain and so loosely drawn as - to give unlimited power to the immigration authorities who have charge of deportation. Suppose. for instance. that an alien who. having been admitted to this country. has made application for citizenship papers. and the probabilities are that he would receive his final papers at the expiration of five years. then. perchance. some designing person would make complaint to the Bureau of Immigration that this alien. who is on the verge of receiving his final papers. was subject to some of the provisions of this bill. it would place in the hands of that bureau unlimited power. Perhaps some innocent female might be taken advantage of by the exercise of such a powera power far exceeding any lettres de cachet issued during the reign of Louis XIVand she might be deported without being given any fair notice whatever. Under the existing law innocent women have been charged with crimes of which they were perfectly innocent and deported without any protection. and it is now time for legislators to prevent the enactment of such unjust and extraordinary laws and to properly protect the immigrant and to curb such enormous power as deporting anyone who has been in this country for a period of five years. No such power should be placed In the hands of any official or representative of the Government unless properly safeguarded. but as the proposed section is now drawn it gives unlimited power to officials to deport perfectly innocent persons. This section alone should be sufficient to sustain the presidential veto and thus defeat the measure. The whole spirit and proposition of this bill is opposed to the principles of American institutions and the Democratic Party. Such a measure was one of the causes of our throwing off the yoke of Great Britain and bringing on the Revolution. In the Declaration of Independence the following is contained concerning the obstructions to immigration: He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States. for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners. refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither. and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. And this very section which I refer to was one of the principles advocated by the immortal Jefferson. I opposed a similar measure in the Sixtysecond Congress and voted to sustain the veto of President Taft. In opposing such a bill I sustain the principles of the Democratic Party as laid down by Thomas Jefferson In his proclamation concerning foreigners. in which he said: It has been the wise policy of these States to extend the protection of their laws to all those who would settle among them of whatsoever nation or religion they might be. and to admit them to a participation of the benefits of civil and religious freedom. and the benevolence of this practice. as well as its salutary effects. renders it worthy of being continued in future times. In writing to Citizen Genet. the representative of the French Government in this country. on the subject of free Immigration Mr. Jefferson said: Our country is open to all men. to come and go peaceably when they choose. And. again. in writing to Gen.