Speech #670383601

The offense of the depariment. so far as it has been guilty of any offense. to be Judged by what follows. does not lie in that direction. The question confronts the investigator at the outset as to the existence of any authority whatever in the Department of Justice in the premises whether any of its acts in connection with these wholesale arrests have the sanction of the law. The administration of the immigration laws. includig all proceedings for the deportation of aliens is reposed by the acts of Congress not in the Depatiment of Justice but in the Department of Labor. They were. for the greater part. made in eponse to a popular demand fur the protection of labor against ruinous competition from foreign elements accustomed to nd content with a standard of living lower than that reasonably demanded and generally enjoyed by the American laborig man. In its ingeption this legislation was aimed largely at Chinese immigration and the evils of contract labor. With such an o tigin and such a purpose it was quite reasonable that Congress should intrust its enforcement to the Departmnt of Labor. and as those dangerous characters whose insidious and destructive activities the newer provisions of the law were intended to meet and overcomle almost invariably addressed themselves to the wageworkers. of whose wvelfare they professed themselves exceptionally solicitous. there appeared to Congress no reason for any change in the policy which had theretofore been pursued. It was. apparently. still b elieved that the Department of Labor could and would more undlerstandingly and more syoipathetically administer the law. welcoming the immigrant coming with honest purpose and regard for the law into the ranks of labor and sternly excluding those whose presence the law declared to ie inimical to the iiterest of those with whom they sought to associate themoselves or to the safety of the country. Moreover. the proceedings provided for by the law for determining wheiher am alien is ientledotenter or to remain in the country after he has entered are not criminal. or even Judicial. strictly speaking. in their nature. but administrative. Accordingly. the privileges guaranteed by the Comstitution to defendants in criminal proceedings can nrot be claimed. as a nmtter of right. by an alien proceeded against under the lmigration laws.