Speech #700136793

Mr. President. the bill does not provide an adequate sum to care for the needs of the Bureau of Immigration in the Department of Labor. I intend to offer an amendment to increase the amount appropriated in this bill for the support of that bureau by $250.000. and I shall address the Senate briefly on that proposal. It was not possible to have a hearing before the Senate Committee on Appropriations on this subject. and I am therefore compelled to introduce testimony from other official records. I desire to quote from the last annual report of the Commissioner of Immigration. Harry E. Hull. The report. dated June 30. 1928. states: Prior to 1921. when the first quota law was enacted. or. perhaps. more accurately. prior to 1924. when the last quota law was enacted. the great bulk of immigration poured through our seaports. and Ellis Island. New York Harbor. was the great portalthe gateway through which the immigrant entered the land of opportunity. The land border ports were of secondary importance. If the expressions " Ellis Island " and " immigration " were not synonymous. one could hardly think of the one without thinking of the other. g * * * * s * A great change has been taking place along our borders. steadily are they approaching a place of first Importance in the scheme of things from an immigration standpoint. The fiscal year just closed witnessed a movement back and forth across these frontiers made up of citizens and aliens aggregating 53.000.000 entrants. I direct the attention of the Senate to the large number of persons. 53.000.000. who passed back and forth across the Canadian and Mexican borders during the last fiscal year. Many of these. of course. were commuters. visitors. excursionists. and so forth. The tremendous impetus given to travel by the automobile and the opening of myriad new roads have been the chief contributing factors. Nevertheless. this large number of persons must be inspected daily by the United States Immigration Service. The commissioners report continues: It Is almost impossible for the Appropriations Committee and the Bureau of the Budget to keep pace with the ever changing and increasing demands. without granting a larger appropriation than is proven necessary at the time appropriations are determined upon. So far the bureau has not been granted sufficient money with which to take care of unusual and unforeseen emergencies. In short. we are. generally speaking. anywhere from six months to a year behind the procession. I might add in this connection that the problem of handling aliens arriving by air Is coming on apace. so that inaddition to our seaport and border control problems. we are right now confronted with the problem of opening many new ports of entry for aliens arriving by aircraft. The Commissioner of Immigration concludes: The foregoing means one thing and one thing only. we have simply got to have the men or else we can not enforce the law. A large part of this work is done by the border patrol. and in commenting upon the activities of that branch of the service the commissioner says: Beginning July 1. 1924. with an appropriation of a million dollars and a personnel of 472 employees. the organization has been exanded to a total of 747 members. consisting of 1 supervisor. 6 assistant superIntendeuts. 28 chief patrol Inspectors. 166 senior patrol Inspectors. 604 patrol inspectors. 15 motor mechanics. 22 clerks. 3 laborers. and 2 janitors. During the year last past it operated on an appropriation of $1.600.000. * S * The outstanding accomplishment of the immigration border patrol for the past year was the apprehension of 25.534 persons of all kinds found engaged in unlawful activities. Of this number. 23.896 were turned over by patrol officers to examiners of the Immigration Service. Out of this total. 18.000 were smuggled aliens and 330 were found to be smugglers of aliens. Commissioner Hull concludes his annual report with this recommendation: That Congress sufficiently increase Its appropriation to the bureau to make possible stricter enforcement of the Immigration laws. Inasmuch as In recent years the Immigration question has become one of the Nations greatest problems. The available force is doing wonderful work in the enforcement of the present law. but naturally a larger force would be in a better position to enforce this very popular law.