We are cntitled to know. gentlemen. particularly in view of the fact that we have failed to pass any bill providing for the registration of aliens. But consider this as the vice of the situation. The Secretary of Labor has the right to request the issuance of a warrant of deportation upon mere suspicion. Now see what can happen. If a man happens to read a foreign newspaper in a subway or elevated train in one of our crowded cities. an immigration inspector will ask him to produce such a card. and the nonproduction of such a card would make him a suspect and put him thereafter to all the troubles and burdens of proving in a court that he did not arrive here after July 1. that he was a naturalized citizen. or that he was born here. Now. gentlemen. there is something wrong about that kind of procedure. Why does not the Secretary of Labor manfully tell us all about this situation? But. my good friends. I am advised by some one who knows that the order with reference to the compelling of the production of the card has been withdrawn. after there was a protest. and that that order of withdrawal has just recently been made. I am going to read to you from a communication which I have received this morning. and I do not desire to disclose the author of the communication: I learn that a revised order has been issued by the Department of Labor omitting the objectionable passage about aliens being required to produce the card whenever demanded by the immigration authorities. No public or formal announcement of the change seems to have been made. either to immigration inspectors or the public. and It is doubtful if inspectors will even know of the modification. Now. why is an order of that sort issued privately and without being made public. without your knowing it and without my knowing it. on a matter as important as this. particularly since the whole proposition flouts the evident purpose of this Congress? And. mind you. gentlemen.
Keywords matched
immigration deportation naturalized