Speech #680213549

Mr. Chairman. the good respiting from the immigration act of 1924 has justified its enactment. It has been in operation long enoughsince July 1. 1.924to demonstrate the value of its restrictive. selective. and humane provisions. The counting is now done abroad by our consular officials. The immigrant can not start for America without the" immigration vis6." and. when granted to him. he knows he is within his countrys quota. The plan prevents futile emigration . the alien no longer need sell his home. dispose of his possessions. spend his hardearned savings for a vis6 and a ticket for America. participate in an ocean marathon to be first in port. exist in an overcrowded Ellis Island. enduring hardship and suffering only at last to realize the quota is exhausted and he must take the long journey home. Now. it need not even cost him the inimigration vis6 fee to ascertain whether or not he is within the quota. He obtains that information from the consulate nearest his place of residence. A preliminary examination by consular officers in considering application for visds often weeds out an intending immigrant who otherwise would make the long journey only to be detained at some American port and rejected as physically. mentally. and morally unfit. The alien wife of an American citizen is now admitted without regard to the quota. In the first six months operation of the law 957 alien wives came to America to join their husbands. So also are alien unmarried children under 18 years of age admitted as nonquota immigrants. Up to the first day of this year 708 of these children came to the United States to live with their parents. In the same period of time over 35.000 alien residents who under the permit system had gone abroad reentered this country. Not one. under the law. was charged against his countrys quota. The uniarried child under 21 years of age. the father. the mother. tile husband of a citizen of the United States who is 21 years of age or over. is given a preference in the granting of 50 per cent of the immigration vis6s. So well is this right guarded that the American consul on receiving an application of an American citizen duly approved at Washington sets aside or mortgages that immigration vise far into the future. If an honest. mistake is made abroad in the granting of vis6s tile Secretary of Labor may. if the alien is otherwise admissible. admit the alien. The law is not only selective and humane but It is restrictive. The number of quota immigrants is reduced from 357.803 to 164.667 per year. aliens ineligible to citizenship are not admissiblewith some minor exceptionsthe fee for tile immigration vis6 added to the headtax charge has greatly reduced the number of nativeborn immigrants coming from Canada. Mexico. South America. and adjacent islands. An efficient border patrol is doing the rest. so that today the United States has a real restrictive immigration policy not only as a law but us a fact. The border patrol is stopping the bootlegging of immigrants across from Canada and Mexico. The system *was established July 1. 1924. There are more than 400 patrol inspectors who guard the borders.