Speech #740169526

From information gathered it is apparent that Industry is giving preference to American citizens rather than to aliens. The attitude of the employer necessarily throws this group of unemployed on the welfare list. It is evident that immigrants are renouncing their allegiance to the lands of their birth and taking the step which will bind them with the ties of loyalty and patriotism to the land in which they have made their home. With the educational opportunities offered them. there are few immigrants of good character here today who cannot. if they will. qualify themselves for American citizenship. In view of these facts. which I have endeavored to make clear. what new legislation is required? During the past 5 years 9.035 alien criminals and narcotic violators have been deported. Violators of the State narcotic acts are not deportable. It is proposed to make these violators deportable. During the same period an additional 20.000 alien criminals have been convicted of crimes which would render them deportable. Under the present law they cannot be deported. and may remain here to create prejudice against lawabiding immigrants. The proposed immigration laws provide that the alien shall be deported if convicted of a crime involving moral turp.tude. At the present time we can deport the alien who is smuggled into the country. but we cannot deport the alien smuggler. We may incur some expense as a result of his activities. because we can put him in jail and board him. but we ought not to be put to that extra expense. Costs of government are rising all the time. and we ought to eliminate all unnecessary expenses. It is proposed. therefore. that the alien smuggler shall be deportable with the alien he smuggles in. It is proposed that racketeers and gangsters convicted of carrying concealed and dangerous weapons shall be deportable. For lack of this authority. more than 5.000 illegal entries have escaped arrest and deportation in the last 2 years. The existing law permits any judge or magistrate to stay the deportation of alien criminals in cases coming before him. Such recommendations should be reviewed and approved before becoming effective. There is. however. another side to the picture. The deportation laws were intended to rid the country of the undesirable alien. We are only now beginning to understand that they serve to guard and protect the criminal alien while dealing with the greatest harshness and severity with the alien of good character. Under the present law aliens of good character are deported. leaving their Americanborn wives and children destitute in this country to become charges on the State. Wives are taken from their husbands. children from their parents. and sent to different countries. It is not unusual for the father to be deported to one country. his wife to another. and his children to a third. If children have been born to them in this country. they are kept here and placed in orphanages or other institutions supported with public funds. Such cruel family separations are unworthy of a great country such as ours. and constitute a blot on our civilization.