Speech #730070038

And what are we asking in the way of funds? We are asking $2.000. The resolution further provides that the investigating committee would also ascertain at firsthand the facts upon which we can base legislative measures to correct alleged abuses against aliens who are held on technical grounds over unreasonable periods of confinement pending deportation proceedings and other alleged questionable practices which inflict what are claimed to be undue hardships upon aliens suspected as being subject to deportation. I do not think the Department of Labor or the Department of Justice have the time nor. possibly. the authority to conduct an investigation such as I propose this select committee of the House shall conduct. This investigation is intended to assist the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization in the formulating of legislative measures designed to stop the side doors for illegal entry to the United States and to correct abuses to aliens charged with being here illegally. Ever since I have been the Chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization my attention has been called to the great number of cases which indicate careful study at first hand should be made to ascertain the facts that result in long detention of aliens held on technical grounds pending their deportation. Just about 2 years ago the Honorable George W. Wickersham submitted to the President of the United States the fifth report of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. which report treated the Enforcement of the Deportation Laws of the United States. It was an exhaustive report and much of its information will prove increasingly valuable as time goes on. Through the text of the pages of this report reference is frequently made to the fact that under present immigration laws tremendous power is exercised by the field personnel in deportation cases whereby members of the same office locally make investigations. conduct preliminary examinations. decide whether or not an interpreter is needed. act as interpreters. act as stenographers. conduct warrant hearings. and make recommendations to Washington as to whether or not a suspected person should be deported. and the records sent to Washington generally contain only so much of what has been done as the inspector wishes. In short. the same man or the same group of men. in a given case act as the inquisitor. interpreter. prosecutor. judge. and later follow through and become the agency for the execution of the sentence pronounced. All through the processes of deportation the same administrative Department of Labor control and execute the methods and determinations which sometimes involve possible interference of the gravest kind with rights of personal liberty. I believe it is as important to American institutions that fundamental principles of fairness and justice be observed in the administration of the immigration laws as it is that aliens unlawfully here should be sent out of the United States. The many complaints that have come to me. as the Chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. coming as they do from all parts of the country. convinces me that many times those fundamental principles of justice and fairness may have been sacrificed by overardent employees in the interest of departmental efficiency or by erroneous interpretation of the relative values of facts. I am more and more convinced that Members of Congress should be delegated by the House to investigate these condltions from the viewpoint of a legislator in the hope that as a result of their personal inquiry in the actual existing processes in deportations your committee may evaluate the necessity for legislative action to further minimize abuses of the judicial principle stated by several Federal courts. to wit. that aliens as well as citizens are entitled to the protection of the fourth amendment to the Constitution. Many complaints have come to me of undue hardships imposed by officials upon aliens held for deportation. They are too numerous to give in detail here. I will simply illustrate by a few instances of importance. [From the Buffalo (N.Y.) Times]