Speech #670145690

That excess is distributed over five months. And now under the 20 per cent maximum per month class of the law several quotas have just .been exhausted. all at once. from a dozen countries with limited quotas. The result is that we have on hand at Ellis Island and at Boston about 1.100 recently arrived immigrants in excess of quotas: from " Other Asia." from Asgyria. from Armenia. from Syria. and from other places. Practically all are dependentswives. mothers. children. or orphanscoming to relatives who are amply able and who will give bond for them. Mr. Chairman. I have worked might and main the last 10 days to prevent the deportation under our 3 per cent law of minor orphan children. of mothersworked to prevent the deportation of people who have come to the United States. some of them starting as long as -a year ago. whereas our 3 per cent act was not passed until last May. people who have fallen sick on their way out of Assyria or some country like that and have been lying in hospitals in India. ill with fever or other disease for six or eight months. with the necessary vis6 on their passportsfor which Uncle Sam has $10 in each casethat brought them a year late into the United States. at Ellis Island. only to be told that they are too late. All told. 1.100 such souls are lying at congested Ellis Island at this Christmas time waiting for the mercy of the United States. Some of those people who are to be returned. under a strict reading of the law. must be returned to the stricken regions in Asia Minor where constant war rages. between the bolshevik on the north and the followers of Mohammed on the south.