Speech #710175658

That is the unfortunate thing into which we have run under Mexican immigration. It comes across the border. It will not concern itself with the visa. I instanced yesterday to the Senator from Arizona the fact that four or five or six years ago we put a head tax of $18 upon each Mexican who came across. In the year preceding that 87.000 came across the border. In the year that we put the tax upon them 32.000 came across the border. Yet it is admitted on all hands that when the 32.000 came across the border enough additional came across the border to more than equal the 87.000 of the previous year. We had the remarkable spectacle presented when the tax was in effect of having the United Stites Government go. for instance. into the Imperial Valley. and there endeavor to collect that tax in installments from employers of the Mexican labor who had come across the border without paying the tax. I beg of the Senator not to be misled by the visa figures. because they do not demonstrate the facts. I want to return to the question of selectivity. with the Senators permission. Does the Senator believe that a board sitting in Washington can accurately select the appropriate kind of immigrants from across the water under a mere system of bureaucracy? Must not that selectivity. to be of any value at all. be made at the sources?