Speech #690170823

Tremulously. the writer says that this threat was made "quite openly." Restrain your fears. gentlemen. If the United States can fihd men who appreciate its dignity and power and the majesty of its laws. it will be a long time before any bunch of law breakers will run its officers out of any State where they are sent to perform official duties. Crediting the statements of officials of the department that "the Immigration Service is not a party to the plan." one wonders who were the parties. Perhaps it was between these troublemaking Interests and the man In the mild moon of southern California. Commissioner General Hull says: It was. therefore. suggested to the ranchers. and other parties interested. that they assist the Immigration Service in providing a means whereby these aliens could gain a lawful residence in the United States. (CoNGRESSIONAL RECOaD. March 18. 1926. p. 5879.) If the moon made this suggestion. that mild mannered. disinterested observer from afar was very kind to stipulate that the peon labor importers should "assist the Immigration Service in finding a manner of defeating the letter and purpose of the law requiring the deportation of these aliens illegally in the country. Assistant Secretary White says in his letter of July 1. 1926. CONGRESSmONAL RECORD. page 12562. thatthe persons concerned joined interests and agreed among themselves to endeavor to persuade aliens in that section to return to Mexico and apply for admission in the regular manner. Troublemaking lawbreakers threatening to run United States officers out of California now agree among themselves to "endeavor to persuade" the aliens to return to Mexico and apply In the regular manner. when. if the law were enforced. few. if any. of them would be admissible because they were illiterate. paupers. many of them diseased. and practically all had been illegally induced and assisted to enter the country by those who were paying or helping them to pay the visa fees and head tax and had Induced them to become immigrants. and were now to persuade them to again enter the country. The law. if enforced. would require the rejection of all such. But. according to this statement. this agreement was not with anybody but was among the people on one side of the bargaining. Think of the United States having lawbreakers to engage in " persuading" Mexican pauper peons to make a mere gesture at bowing to the Nations law being contemptuously violated by them! However. these interests on one side of the arrangement published blanks and instructions for carrying out the plan. These blanks they furnished to the department. and in them the importers said: If we. the citizens of the Imperial Valley. will perform our part of the understanding in good faith we are assured of the same good faith and friendly cooperation from the officials of the Immigration Service. (CoNGassIoNAr. REcoRD. March 18. 1926. p. 5879.) This Is strange language to be used concerning the Government officials if they were bound by no agreement requiring good faith observance. But the action of the labor importers In supplying It to the Immigration Service and the Department of Labor was still more remarkable. if we accept the denials that that service was not a party to it and did not know of It. even after the department was furnished with all this literature prepared for and used in its execution. If these interests were misrepresenting- the attitude of the officials. why did they take pains to advise the officials of just how they were doing it. and why were the officials handling and exhibiting these blanks and instructions in justification of the plan? In his letterCONRESSIONAL RECORD.