Speech #710175298

Others ------------------------------------------- 28.8 Grand total -----------------------------------100.00 Of these classes. A represents aliens who would be nonquota even were a quota imposed on Mexico. B and C would doubtless include a large number who would ill many cases be nonquotit as returning residents of the United States. and who would in any event not represent new Mexican immigration into the United States. These three classes represent a total of 50.4 per cent of Mexicans now classed as immigrants. Of the remaining 49.6 per cent. 20.8 per centof the totalconsist of wives and minor children of admitted aliensclass D. This class of Mexicans would be admissible to the United States in any event. outside the quota. if and as soon as their husbands and fathers. respectively. become citizens. Their entry. therefore. would as a rule be only delayed and not definitely stopped by the imposition of a quota. which would merely serve in their cases to delay the reuniting of families. Eliminating the special classes mentioned as not constituting new immigration from Mexico to the. United States. there remains only 28.8 per cent of the total which represents new Mexican ittmigration of a character which the imposition of a: quota would stop. These Mexicans are. of course. the selected few remaining after the elimination of their fellow Mexicans who have failed to qualify in all respects for admission to the United States under our immigration laws. This class. comprising new Mexican immigration which would be affected by a quota. may therefore be said to be entering the United States at the rate of 302 per month. or 3.628 per annum. gross. The problem of new immigration from Mexico. barring the question of surreptitious bordercrossing activities. would therefore no longer appear to be a serious one. Of tile 10.483 immigration visas issued to Mexicans in the nine monthsJuly. 1929. to March. 1930. inclusiveonly 1.199. or 133 per month. are estimated as having been issued to common laborers without a previous residence in the United States. This type of new immigration is therefore now cominig in at a rate of about 1.600 per annum. Permit me to observe that under the bill favorably reported to the House of Representatives by the Committee oil Immigration of that body the permalnent Mexican quota is fixed at 2.900. Mexican immigration through legal channels has been reduced adullnistratively from a heavy streanm to what is not much more than a mere trickle. Scarcely any Mexican laborers are now coming in legally. and this has been accomplished without a lumerical quota. It should also be considered that the recent figures for Mexican imnigration are gross and take no account of the large proportion who return later to Mexico. A quota would only affect the problem of lawful Mexican immigration. which has already been solved. It would not touch the real problem. that of illegal entries. Let us seek the remedy which will cure the ill and not make an empty gesture of legisltting an unnecessary quota to the serious detriment of our relations with Latin America. Annual reports of the Commissioner General of Immigration for 1925. p. 143. 1926. p. 123. 1927. p. 143. 1928. p. 143. and 1929. p. 137. It is utterly illogical to say that because large numbers of Mexicans are in this country it must follow that large numbers are entering legally. Such is not the case. and yet such must be the assumption of those who advocate a quota as the unique specific for the ill.