Speech #690145668

Mr. OGDEN MILLS. came before the committee and demanded that a similar :provision be !put in the bill. but that request also was ignored. Yet the committee laid great stress on seeing that the -unfortunate man or woman. not a criminal but who by some reason or other as pointed out. may technically become a public charge. and of the decent man or woman. as pointed out. who commits any offense punishable by one year or offenses aggregating 18 months. shall be -deported within 10 or 15 years. as the case may be. Such legislation -should be discouraged and resented because. in the first place. as I have stated before. we already have more than sufficient laws to deport undesirables. and to pass a technical deportation act for minor violations would practically help the interests in deporting men and women who seek a better standard of living and a better wage. and if they should lawfully picket and be arrested and sentenced during any period within 10 years for one year. they may be deported. or if during a period of 15 years. they go out lawfully picketing and presenting their case to the public and if their sentences within 15 years iii installments would total 18 monthsthey can also be deported. That certainly goes far enough for me to say as a Member of this House that this proposed legislation is unAmerican and can not receive my sanction nor the sanction of any man on this floor who would have the time to study the problem. And again. if a man should receive. say six months for violating the Volstead Act. six months for picketing. and six months for other small minor offenses. within a period of 15 years that person must be deported. under the provisions of this billwithin three years after he leaves the jail and after 15 years of residence in this country. which would make a totalof 18 years. The only consideration that this committee gave was my amendment to legalize all those illegally in the United States up to July 1. 1924. The purpose of this amendment was to clean house once and for all. and to make those persons illegally in the United States become part and parcel of us. provided that they are otherwise admissible morally and phy-