Speech #730188808

They appear to be from reading what someone wrote here. Now. how many are there? We have been deporting 20.000 people until the past year when. I think. it fell to 14.000. Now. what did the Commissioner of Immigration admit? He admitted that there were only 5 percent that he considered hardship cases. and he has withheld deportation in sixhundredandsomeodd cases where he considers it would be a hardship to deport them. and he says of that number approximately fivehundredandsomeodd are hardship cases. and that is 5 percent. and some of these are carryovers from the previous year. So only a small percentage of the total number subject to deportation. according to the Secretary. are hardship cases. Now. it may be that the Secretary of Labor. in the exercise of discretion. might be just and might have in mind the interest of the country. I believe this is true. but what guarantee have we that- when administrations change we will not. during one administration. have a socalled "liberal." I regard Miss Perkins as a liberal on the immigration question. I do not think her views coincide with my views on this question. I am not criticizing or condemning her. but I object in all these classes. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. and 8. to permitting the Secretary of Labor. who would delegate authority to some assistant. to sit there and say. here is an alien who has violated the laws of this country. here is an alien who is subject to deportation under the present law. and yet we are not going to deport him. What is going to happen? You know that political pressure will be brought to bear on the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner of Immigration. You know in cities like New York and Chicago. with these aliens not wanting to be deported. working through political influence and alien organizations. they will bring to bear great political pressure on the Secretary. not to deport him and you know. further. that whenever you leave this matter to the discretion of the Secretary of Labor. you are treading on dangerous ground. We have gone pretty far in giving discretion to secretaries and executive officials. * Heretofore we have confined the delegation of this particular discretionary power to a year or 2 years. with safeguards and guarantees. When I had my bill before the committee. and that was endorsed by the restrictionist organizations in the country. providing for the reduction of quota. one provision of that bill was to permit reuniting families within the quota. but that was killed in the Immigration Committee. and the gentleman from New York voted against it. and he has publicly stated so. When they talk about being in favor of restriction of immigration I say to you that this bill is not right. it is not the proper procedure. and the effort behind it is an effort to give to the Secretary of Labor the power to say who shall be deported and who shall not. and all this talk about checks and balances and limitations is nonsense. What do you call "of public interest "? That is a great check!