Speech #740048631

Speaker. under leave granted me to extend and revise my remarks today in opposition to the request by the gentleman from Colorado that business in order tomorrowApril 3. Calendar Wednesdaybe dispensed with. I wish to present some facts to the Members of this House relative to the consideration of bills referred to the committee of which I am chairman. and the inconsistency of objections raised on this floor to proper consideration of bills reported from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. For several weeks past statements of all kinds have been hurled. both from the floor of this House and in the public press. against the Chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. some even accusing him of being responsible for the difficulties which the country is facing relative to adjustment of some distressing phases of our immigration laws. These accusations were effectively answered by me on the floor of this House. and I felt that nothing remained to be said in my effort to clear up the situation for the information of the Members of this body. But a few days ago the gentleman from Texas . the gentleman from Ohio . and the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. TRuA.l have seen fit to proceed again with their misstatements concerning the situation as it affects the existing immigration laws. I have also been charged with being responsible for the return to the United States of Emma Goldman. it being claimed that it was legislation I sponsored which made it possible for her to come in recently as a visitor. So I say the time has come when it is necessary to give this body a thorough review of the present situation. The gentleman from Texas said: Mr. Speaker. in 1932 the gentleman from New York . who was then. and is now. Chairman of the Committee on Immigration. brought in here a bill which he passed. and it was approved May 25. 1932. and became Fortyseventh Statute. 165. Later the gentleman from Texas referred to operations under that law. and in reference to Emma Goldman he said: She was brought back to the United States under that bill. If it had not been for that bill. she would not have been brought back here. Now let us see what the underlying facts really are. An act approved March 4. 1929 (45 Stat. 1551). contained provisions in section 1 (a). which. for all practicable purposes. amounted to total banishment of every alien against whom a deportation order had been issued. either before or after the approval date of that act. There were absolutely no exceptions. The operations under that section of the act proved to be so inhuman and tyrannical in effect that on June 24. 1929less than 4 months after the Banishment Act became lawan amendment was approved which gave certain discretion to the Secretary of Labor in the cases of aliens who had been deported prior to March 4. 1929. so that such aliens may apply from abroad for permission of the Secretary of Labor to file a new application for an immigration visa with an American consular officer abroad. During the Seventysecond Congress. persistent representations were made to the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. and also to the Senate Committee on Immigration. that under the operation of that amendment. a lot of hardship was being inflicted upon families in the United States left behind when the breadwinner of the family was deported. in many cases only on a technicality of the law. after March 4. 1929. and was thereafter perpetually prevented from ever returning to the fireside of his family in the United States. The hardship in these cases had to be borne by those of the family left here when the breadwinner had been forced to leave and the committees were urged to remedy that situation. However. contrary to the statement made by the gentleman from Texas . the relief that had been earnestly requested by the families of these deported breadwinners was not originally in any bill as reported directly to this House from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization under my sponsorshipalthough I would have been glad to sponsor such a relief measure for meritorious cases where the deported person was definitely in the noncriminal classes. What happened was this: The Committee on Immigration. under date of January 25. 1932. reported a bill known as " H. R. 6477 ". the purpose of which was to further extend certain naturalization privileges to alien veterans residing in the United States. This bill was passed by the House and sent to the Senate. The session of that Congress was rapidly drawing toward an adjournment. and for that reason. and owing to the urgent need for certain other immigration and naturalization legislation pending at that time before them. the Senate Committee on Immigration added a number of amendments to the House bill 6477 and reported the amended bill to the Senate. This amended bill was passed by the Senate and was sent to a conference of the two Houses. The House then receded from its disagreement to the Senate amendments. the report of the conferees was agreed to by the House. and there is nothing in the RECORD to show that the gentleman from Texas objected to this final action by the House.