Speech #710259367

Mr. Chairman. ladies and gentlemen of the committee. I think the House ought to bear with me a moment on the question of the policy of our Government in regard to immigration. I see by this mornings paper that the Secretary of.Labor has stated that there are 400.000 persons illegally in the United States and that about 100.000 can be deported. Now I think that statement ought to be considered very carefully by the Congress. and if we have 400.000 undesirable aliens they should be deported. and if we can deport 100.000 we ought to deport them and get rid of the undesirable criminals in the United States. which will do more for this Government than tampering with the present condition of the immigration law. which is provided in our quota. The Secretary of Labor says that he would like to have the Congress amend the law so as to place the burden on the alien to help him deport the alien. If the Secretary of Labor had examined section 23 of the act of 1924 he would see that the burden there is placed by the Congress on the alien to show that he has a right to be here. So the law that he now seeks to amend as to place the burden on the alien already is there. There is enough law on the statute book under the acts of 1917 and 1924 to deport every undesirable alien. But instead of that they are proceeding now on a program to suspend immigration for two years. Now. we must bear in mind that under the immigration act and prior to 1921 there came to this country 1.200.000 a year. In 1921 and 1924 Congress finally adopted a permanent policy of restricted immigration and cut the number down to 150.000 a year. Out of the 150.000 the western part of Europe received 120.000 to 130.000. leaving about 30.000 for the rest of the world. In 1928 the Democratic Party in its platform pledged to the people of this country that they were going to do everything they could to unite families. and when we talk about uniting a family we mean the husband and wife and the child who are separated.