Speech #710297224

President. I have Just sent to the desk the bill which passed the Senate. and as to which this motion to reconsider was interposed. Before the clerk reads the bill I should like to state that we are evincing a great deal of interest in immigration matters. A bill is now pending before the Senate Committee on Immigration to restrict immigration. and indirectly to deal with the illegal entry into the United States of persons who under the law have no right to the hospitality of our shores. Quite recently the President of the United States recommended. as I remember. an appropriation of $500.000 in addition to the very large appropriation heretofore made to the Bureau of Immigration for the purpose of deporting aliens who are illegally in the United States and subject to deportation. I think a bill is pending to strengthen the border patrol and to increase the appropriation there to the extent of several hundred thousand dollars. for the purpose of keeping illegal entrants from coming into the United States. While we are evincing so much interest in new legislation and in strengthening existing laws. we are silent and inactive with respect to what some have denominated the sidedoor entrance by which and through which some twelve to twentyfive thousand illegally enter into the United States annually under the guise of being alien seamen. The bill to which I have referred aimed to cure that situation and to prevent persons pretending to be seamen from entering the United States. That bill. as I stated. received the unanimous approval of the Committee on Immigration on two separate occasions. It passed the Senate of the United States without opposition upon two separate occasions.