Speech #720181282

Mr. Chairman. word reached me that be singled out for this special and most severe act of hardby a recent order of our Department of Labor. to keep ship which will be caused to them if the order of the dewithin the appropriations for 1933. all employees in the partment is literally enforced. Immigration Service have been furloughed for a period of The Immigration Service of the United States is not only one month between January 1 and June 30. 1933. I was concerned with the examination and inspection of aliens. also informed that in addition to this 1month furlough. but is also engaged in many activities ordinarily escaping applicable to all employees of the service. 10 per cent of all the attention of the public. immigrant inspectors would be furloughed for a period of On the contrary. the rigid restrictions of immigration have six months from January 1 to June 30 next. served to intensify efforts on the part of ineligible aliens to All of these furloughs are in addition to the legislative enter this country in violation of law. In the annual refurlough which has been in force with reference to all Fed- port of the Commissioner General of Immigration for 1931. eral employees during the current fiscal year. the following statement appears: I believe that the recent ruling of the Department of Labor with reference to the furloughing of Immigrant in- The smuggling of aliens into the United States is often a highly organized and lucrative business. reaching out to the home comspectors for six months is decidedly the severest blow which munities in Europe and other parts of the world. including. parthe personnel of the Immigration Service has ever sustained. ticularly. foreign contiguous countries. Agents abroad make the I have had several conferences on this subject with the contact with the alien. and all manner of fraud and misrepresentations are practiced. the victims are often mulcted of all the Secretary of Labor. when there was submitted to him con- funds they possess or can obtain. and even after illegal entry is crete evidences of the hardship and other bad effects to the accomplished are often subjected to blackmail under threats of service which would follow the imposition of so long a lay- reporting them for deportation. Some smugglers. however. have a off of that portion of the personnel least able to adjust reputation in the trade for maintaining fixed rates. and this. of course. is a means of or inducement for obtaining further busithemselves to the situation. The Secretary is to be com- ness. To combat this bootlegging of aliens. often mingled with mended for his sympathetic reception of the facts when the bootlegging of liquor or other contraband. reliance is placed properly presented to him and for his prompt effort to cor- mainly on the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the border patrol rect the matter. A new order has been issued whereby the in the first instance. so far as entries over the land and certain water boundaries are concerned. to prevent illegal entries or to provision for a 6month payless furlough of part of the capture the aliens and their smugglers soon after entry. with immigration personnel is canceled and in lieu a general resultant prosecution. and. as a second line of defense. upon the furlough throughout the service is directed for 30 days inspectors at our ports of entry and the unremitting activities of the field forces to locate and remove the aliens who have been between January 1 and the end of the current fiscal year. successful in securing admission. and prosecuting those InstruI am particularly interested in this service as chairman of mental In engineering the clandestine or spurious entries if and the Immigration Committee of the House and I know a large when they can be located. As an indication of this persevering portion of the men in the service personally or through my work and comparatively successful prevention of smuggling over our borders. individual and organized. it is recorded that 21.335 official connection with the Immigration Committee. I know aliens and 228 smugglers of aliens were apprehended by the border that this personnel is very devoted. painstakingly honest and patrol in the past fiscal year. This was not so easy of accomplishconscientious in the performance of their duties. and that ment as the tactics of smugglers are constantly changing and the proposed order of the Labor Department is a crushing so requires equal fertility of resource by our protective forces. blow to the personniel wholly unmerited and undeserved. Thus it will be seen that the activities of the Immigration The proposed action of the department would mean more Service in seeking to prevent the unlawful smuggling of than the actual loss in salaries to the individual members of aliens are in themselves a substantial item of work on the the Immigration Service affected thereby. I am afraid it part of the Immigration Service. may in many instances have meant actual financial ruin of Back in 1925. Congress recognized the fact that owing to the individual members and a breakdown of the morale of inadequate funds appropriated for the services of a trained the entire immigration staff in the various immigration sta- personnel to prevent the smuggling of aliens at various tions throughout the United States. points of entry. the border patrol unit of the Immigration