Speech #670195602

Very largely. (Hearings of Dec. 19. 1921. p. 215.) Tile act of 1.917. embodying the general immigration laws. contains the following: That the Commissioner General of Immigration. with the approval of the Secretary of Labor. shall issue rules and prescribe conditions. including exaction of stch bonds as may be necessary. to control and regulate the admission and return of otherwise inadmissible aliens applying for temporary admission. (Immigration Laws. p. 8.) The following is one of the rules for the enforcement of the clause quoted: In cases in which alienswho are mandatorily excluded from permament entry apply for the privilege of entering the United States temporarily. they shall be required to show that their temporary entryv is an urgent necessity or that unusual and grave hardship would result from. adenlal of their request. (Immigration Laws. pp. 5758.) This Is the provision under which they have been pretendingto admit these people. First. I call your attention to the fact that it applies only to people who are inadmissible under the immigration laws. No man who. can be legally admitted under the immigration laws. the act of 1917. can be permitted to enter the United States. temporarily under this clause. Second. the " admission and return " are connected and alwaysjointly provided for. The idea of admission under itin fact permanentis inconsistent with the terms of the law itself and foreign to the very purpose of it. If an alien was critically ill on board ship and coild not bd admitted under the immigration laws. he could be placed in a hospital within the custody and under the control of the immigration authorities and treated until he could Ibe deported. Other emergency situations of a similar nature were foreseen and provided for. But the very fact that none but inadmissible aliens were governed by the provision certainly excludes the idea that admissions expected to be made permanent could be made under it. Neither are these people admissible under the 3 per cent act of May. 1921. which provides: That the number of aliens of any nationality who may be admitted under the immigration laws of the United States In any fiscal year shall be limited to 3 per cent of the number of foreignborn persons of such nationality resident in the United States as determined by the United States census of 1910. Note that this applies only to aliens admissible under the act of 1917. The clause quoted from that act applies only to those who are inadmissible under it.