Speech #700011475

Chairman. I move to strike out the last word. Yesterday I asked the chairman of the Immigration Coiimittee to withdraw his charge that Governor Smith was protecting alien criminals so that. as he said. they might remain here. be naturalized. and vote the Tammany ticket. It is absolutely without foundation in fact. and the complete facts as established in correspondence between Governor Smith and Secretary of Labor Davis show there was no justification for such a statement. The gentleman making the attack on the dignity and decency of a whole State withheld information that is due the Members of the House. He withheld the fact that the Solicitor General of the Labor Department. when asked to rule on Governor Smiths position. found the latter was completely right in his contention. The Department of Labor admits that new law is needed to correct the situation. their solicitor general rules that the existing method of deporting alien criminals iust be overhauled. that it has been illegal. And yet the Immigration Committee chairman not only withholds this information. but refuses to expunge his remarks from the REco0f in the face of these facts. Here are the facts: The Labor Department insists that the States must turn over alien criminals as they leave the penitentiaries. so that they can be deported. In some cases. of course. where such aliens are liable to deportation. this is done by every State in the Union. But many prisoners are often let out on parole. They may later be pardoned by the pardon board. During that parole period they are under the jurisdiction of the State. The State owes it to its own dignity and protection to keep them under surveillance. If deported immediately upon the end of their sentence. they are deprived of a chance of pardon and restoration of citizenship. They are deprived of due process of law. It is this class which the State of New York will not give up to the Federal Government with undue haste. Mind you. the Federal Government is receiving New Yorks cooperation with regard to men clearly liable to deportation. There is no dispute about that. And the other classthe paroled prisonerscan le deported if no pardon is granted during the period of parole. Now. why is the Federal Governmentand the chairman of the Immigration Committeecomplaining? Merely because the Budget Bureau will not grant the Labor Department sufficient funds to find men who ought to be deported. They can always be picked up after they have left the prison and expiration of the parole period has terminated the States jurisdiction. But the Budget Bureau will not give the Labor Department enough money to carry out the provisions of the immigration law. And in their anger at the Budget Bureau. and their partisan rage. they seek to throw the burden of responsibility in this situation on Governor Smith. If money is what they need to enforce the law. and ifthey can not get enough to enforce it. the blame lies with the present administration and nobody else. The gentleman also made the statement that a supreme court judge. sitting in the county of the" Bronx. city of New York. had naturalized 10.000 applicants in one day. I called the attention of the House to the fact that this was a physical impossibility. I have just received a telegram from Robert L. Moran. county clerk of Bronx County. embraced in New York City. addressed to me: DEAn CONGRESSMAN: So that you may convey to Congressman joinsoN of Washington the facts regarding naturalization in Bronx County. permit me to inform you that about 10.000 applicants will be heard during the month of January. beginning the 5th and ending The chairman of tie Immigration Committee tried to give the impression these 10.000 men would be heard iii one day. Court hearings start at 9.45 a. m. until 4 p. m. The record is as follows: January 5. 385.