Speech #740048631

This bill proposes to restore citizenship to women born in the United States. who are living in the United States. who have never taken personally any oath of allegiance to any foreign government but who. nevertheless. lost their citizenship prior to September 22. 1922. simply because before that date they married aliens. An American woman who married an alien subsequent to September 22. 1922. did not thereby lose her citizenship. This bill will benefit only nativeborn women who are now and for 3 years have been living in the United States and will enable them to resume their citizenship without exhaustive procedure before naturalization authorities and permits them to obtain a certificate of citizenship. if they desire it. in a rather informal manner. I cannot for the life of me see why there should be any objection to this bill. since it simply equalizes the citizenship status of nativeborn women now living in the United States who married aliens prior to September 22. 1922. with the citizenship status of nativeborn women now living in the United States who married aliens after September 22. 1922. Yet when this bill was reached the other day on the calendar. the objection of one Member prevented consideration by the House. This one objection came from the gentleman from California . I was especially surprised at this objection. since the gentleman who thus prevented consideration of H. R. 4354 now has pending with the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization a bill of somewhat similar intent. only his bill would permit any woman who had lost her citizenship by reason of marriage to an alien. or because her husband lost his citizenship. to regain her own citizenship by a short naturalization procedure while she is living abroad. and he would permit the woman seeking repatriation to take her oath of allegiance before an American consul in a foreign post of duty with no requirement on the womans part that she intends to reside permanently in the United States. If the gentleman from California would seek this privilege for a woman living abroad I fail to see his reason for objecting to the consideration of the bill H. R. 4354. which seeks a similar privilege for women born here and living here. Again referring to the Filipino repatriation billwhich is House Joint Resolution 71and which was objected to about a month ago by the gentleman from Texas . the gentleman from Ohio . and the gentleman from Michigan . The objections by these three Members struck that resolution from the Consent Calendar for this session of Congress. I cannot see the consistency of such objections when the same gentlemen continually tell you we should get rid of undesirable aliens. The Filipino .is neither an alien nor a citizenhe is just a national or subject. Yet this resolution proposed to relieve many local communities and political subdivisions of the United States which now have a very real problem in the burden of caring for unemployed and distressed Filipinos. we proposed paying their fares back to their native homeland. and in this way repatriating them and taking them off public relief rolls thereby saving money for the American taxpayer in the long run. A similar measure was submitted 2 years ago and was supported by the Secretary of War. the Secretary of the Navy. and the Secretary of Labor. The resolution has the support of our immigration officials and will undoubtedly encourage voluntary applications from many Filipinos for transportation back to the Philippine Islands. I have no doubt a close examination of the purposes of the resolution. coupled with a study of the situation and a careful reading of the report by the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. will convince many Members of this House of the soundness of its provisions. and they will then permit this measure to be considered and passed by this House. It will help the Filipinos and this country. too. Another bill which the Committee on Immigration recently reported out provides for the repatriation of aliens who have fallen into distress and unemployment and is H. R. 3472. which gives that right to the Federal authorities in lieu of the existing provisions of law which limit such aid to 3 years after the entry of the aliens into the United States. The proposed statute intends to grant this right to the Secretary of Labor without any limitation of time after entry in the case of any alien who finds that he cannot maintain himself in the United States. wishes to go home. could be transported at the expense of the Government and thereby relieve our communities of the problem of caring for. supporting. and maintaining such aliens. Yet here again we find Members of this House. who claim to be interested in relieving this country of undesirable aliens. entering objections to consideration by this House of this billH. R. 3472which is a very much needed measure. Three objections were entered on March 4. 1935. by the gentleman from Ohio . the gentleman from Texas . and the gentleman from California . A study of these bills and the objections made to their consideration by this House after the Committee on Immi-. gration and Naturalization has submitted unanimous reports favoring the passage of these necessary legislative measures will cause any candid student of the situation to wonder at the apparent inconsistency indicated by the Members who urge restriction and cleanup. on one hand. while. on the other hand. preventing the Membership of this House from consideration of beneficial legislative measures in line with their expressions. The program of our committee would not be complete without granting some relief to World War veterans of alien birth who for sometime past could be naturalized under a shortened procedure. but the law under which this naturalization could be effected has since expired. We propose to extend this period of time and we also wish to extend the same privileges to aliens who did not serve under our flag but who did serve under the flags of countries with which the United States was allied during the World War. I believe that with this proposed legislation our immigration problem will be materially remedied and that we shall then be as near its solution as is feasible. This measure for the benefit of veterans of the World War was passed by the House on April 1. 1935. and sent to the Senate. This is the second bill sent to the Senate this session from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. I conclude with just this statement. That every bill reported from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization this session has met with unexpected and unwarranted opposition on the floor of this House and it seems impossible to secure appropriate consideration of measures that should be passed in the ordinary procedure of the House. The committee has not had a regular call on Calendar Wednesday at any time in many years and now with the repeated practice of dispensing with Calendar Wednesday business. according to the House rules. there seems practically no chance this session for orderly consideration of our bills except by the granting of special privileges through rules from the Committee on Rules. I hope we may yet have consideration of some of the important measures which have been reported from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization and the very vital legislation which will yet be reported from that committee during the next few weeks. I thank you.