Speech #710091949

If the American girland there are a number of cases todayhas married a foreign husband and wants to bring him here. all she gets is a preference. If the husband happensto be born in England. he can come here in a year. but from other places it ranges from 5 and 10 years or more. These things we want to correct and we want a proper immigration policy. and when you do it you are giving the American women the same rights that you are giving the American man. The House will observe that by a passage of this bill effect will be given to the commissioner generals recommendation. and it is clearly our duty to relieve the hardship now imposed by law on a parent of an American child who can not come into this country to join him or on a husband. and particularly on a husband of an American citizen. who is separated from his wife because of the harshness of the law which makes him merely a preferred immigrant instead of giving him a nonquota status. H. a. 6852 House bill 6852 is another act carrying into effect a recommendation of the Commissioner General of Immigration. The object of this act is to provide that an alien in this country prior to July 1. 1924. shall be eligible to be registered for permanent residence. changing the date from June 3. 1921. which is the date specified in the present act to the firstnamed date. This recommendation appears in the report of the Commissioner General of Immigration. .on pages 30 and 31 of the annual report. and being the twelfth recommendation. reading as follows: Twelfth. That the act approved March 2. 1929. entitled "An act to supplement the naturalization laws. and for other purposes." be amended so as to provide that the registry of aliens as therein provided may be made as to those aliens who entered the United States prior to July 1. 1924. instead of prior to June 3. 1921. the date specified in the present act. It is clear that this act will merely correct a mistake theretofore made by this House in limiting the registration period to aliens in this country prior to June 3. 1921. It is five years now since July 1. 1924. The aliens in this country prior to that day can not be deported. and no reason exists why their admission should not be made legal and permanent. after proper registration in a manner provided by law. Now. gentlemen. you ought to know something about the history of immigration. I do not propose to discuss a subject before this House unless I know what I am talking about. You had no quota law until 1921. Any man. woman. or child. physically fit. could come into the country. In 1921. because of the war and the fear that millions would come in here. we heard a number of times Chairman JOHNSON talking about millions that would come Into this country. but we have not the figures or statistics to prove it. There is no merit in thatmillions did not want to come here. I agrse that we should keep them out if they do want to come in excessive numbers am more than we can absorb. In 1921 we had the first quota law. which was a temporary measure. and we have allowed people to conm here from every part of the world. by providing that 3 per cent of any nationality as determined by the census of 1910 be permitted to enter this