Speech #700189428

Some of them are said to be engaged in the business of smuggling aliens into the United States. Of course. it will help their business for you to give their alien seamen citizenship within three years. though I have no reason to believe that it will be better for the citizenship to have that done. But you will understand that all of the alien seamen who thus get American citizenship within three years will have the privilege of bringing certain relatives into the country as nonquota immigrants. If they have filed declaration of intention they will get citizenship and bring their nonquota relatives sooner. This. of course. is exactly in line with the whole tenor and purpose of the Copeland amendment to this bill. I shall discuss some other features of it in connection with the main body of the bill. Under the longestablished policy pursuant to which our naturalization laws have been written and maintained aliens who smuggle themselves into the country in violation of the immigration laws have been denied the right to become citizens. the privilege of reentering the country upon going out. and the favor accorded to citizens and aliens lawfully in the country of having certain near relatives admitted as immigrants. either by preference within the quota or as nonquota immigrants. The Copeland amendment to H. R. 349. as presented in this conference report. proposes to reverse that policy as to all aliens who came into the country illegally prior to June 3. 1921. and as to all who. entering prior to that date. have illegally remained in the country since then in violation of their obligation to depart upon expiration of the term of their temporary admission. It proposes that many thousands of aliens who entered the United States prior to June 3. 1921. in contempt of law and those who have unlawfully remained while under obligation to depart shall have their illegal entry or stay validated by certificate of arrival upon making some showing in an ex parte proceeding before subordinates of the Immigration Service In the field that such alien(1) Entered the United States prior to June 3. 1921. (2) Has resided continuously in the United States since such entry: (3) Is a person of good moral character. and (4) Is not subject to deportation. There is no requirement that he shall have entered the country without any intent to violate the law. no restriction that the immigration officers shall find that he Is such a person as should now be admitted under the law. or that he could have been admitted had he properly applied for admission as an immigrant. Both of these provisions were consciously and intentionally omitted because they would have barred the hundreds of thousands of guilty aliens and their relatives now in Europe. to whom this bill caters. The House committee bill. reported by a divided vote. required that it be shown that such person has behaved as a person of good moral character at all times since entry. but that was changed in the Copeland amendment and in the conference report so as to merely show that he is of a good moral character now. Nearly anybody can make that statement in an ex parte affidavit If no questions are to be asked about his past. The provision that such aliens shall not be subject to deportation has little restrictive effect because deportation proceedings against nearly all such are already .barred by the statutes of limitations. The conference report contains no requirement that the alien shall show that he entered the United States legally. that he has rightfully remained within the United States. or that he was admissible under the law at the time of his entry. or that his illegal entry or stay was without intent to violate the law. The policy heretofore maintained in excluding him from citizenship and from other privileges recognizes the sound principle that wrongful intent is presumed from the aliens conscious action.