Speech #720026121

I want to speak of some of the minutia of the bill. I see no fault to find with section 2. If Senators will turn to section 3 of the bill. they will notice in line 5. on page 2. a proviso that unless an alien was shipped in an American port "prior to the passage of this act." then. if it is found he is not a bona fide seaman. on the return of the vessel he shall be deported at the expense of the vessel. We have already adopted an amendment to the bill which takes care of conditions on the Great Lakes. If an alien is shipped in this country. and is brought back on the return voyage. so that the same alien gets back to this country. it is obviously wrong to blame the vessel for the illegality of his original entry and obviously wrong to subject the vessel to the expense of sending him to the seaboard and thence to his own country. I think the same thing applies to the seaports of the United States. Let us suppose that an American ship bound from New York to Europe or from San Francisco to some place in Asia ships a seaman for the round trip and the seaman appears to be legally here. If that same ship comes back bringing that same seaman. it has not added to the illegal immigrants in the United States in any way. If it were to ship somebody in Naples and bring him here and it were found that he was inadmissible. then clearly I think we would all agree that that ship ought to bear the expense of deporting that illegal immigrant. But if the man is shipped on West Street. New York. or if he is shipped down on the wharves in San Francisco. carried away. and brought back. the steamship company is not any more guilty than wo4ld be the trolley company which took him for a ride around the city.