Speech #670177492

President Butler. of Columbia University. one of the leading university presidents. and a distinguished Republican. in a letter dated February 18. 1922. said in part: MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN SIEGEL: I am greatly disappointed at the news contained In yours of the 16th. This means a fight in the Senate. because the educational institutions will riot sit silently by and permit that kind of barbarism to. be perpetrated by the Congress. In October it became necessary to have a special order made relieving the. hardships which had arisen and which reads as follows: To all commissioners of immigration atnd inspectors in. charge at ports of entry for aliens: It is a noteworthy fact that the immigration act approve(] May 19. 1921. makes no provision for excepting from the quota count or for the admission beyond the quota limits aliens who come to the United States for the purpose of following tile avocation of students. Already this is working a hardship. and. in the view of the department. an administrative exception in the cases of bona tide students coining here from certain countries whose quotas for the entire year have been consumed seems advisable. It has been necessary in instances to exclude young men coming here to take collegiate courses concerning whose bona fide status as students there was not the remotest question. Tile deprartment has taken the position that it will not absolutely exclude students of this class who may arrive in excess of the quota limits of the act. but that It will. when the bona fides of the case are apparent. admit the subject temporarily for a period of one year on his personal bond. The purpose of this letter is to authorize the officers in charge it the several ports to dispose of the cases of bona fide and otherwise admissible students destined to recognized Institutions of learning in the United States. and who would otherwise be deported because of having arrived in excess of the quota limits of the act in the manner above indicated. viz. accept their personal bonds in the penalty of $500 guaranteeing their departure from the country at or brefore the expiration of one year from date of landing. unless. of course. their cases be otherwise disposed of in the nmeantinie. Where the officer in charge is not convinced that the case of the applying student coies within the scope of the departments instruction. t is instructed that the records in such cases be referred to the department. as on appeal. for its consideration and decision.