Speech #740208229

Under the present procedure he has to go from this country back to his own country and reenter. come in under the quota. That is silly. it is foolish. If I am an immigrant in this country. coming even from Canada. and I desire to change my status. there is no reason in my having to go back to Canada. If I am from a quota country. there is no sense in making me go back. because the quota can be charged just as well by having my status changed here as by making me take the trip back home and come to this country again. That is the situation with which section 4 deals. It would not increase the number of immigrants who might enter. It would charge them to the quota. It merely provides that instead of making a foolish and unnecessary trip. an immigrant who has entered legally and is in the country legally. may change his status by simply making application. and. on the granting of the application. having his status changed. Section 5 refers to the registry of aliens and would give to those who desired to register and who entered prior to July 1. 1924. the same right as that possessed by those who entered prior to July 3. 1921. Section 6 is simply procedural. having to do with the burden of proof. Section 7 is simply a provision for fees. Section. 8 is a provision which gives to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization the power to pick up criminal aliens. At the present time the Department estimates that some 2.500 aliens a year are escaping detention because of the fact that they are not able to pick them up. They see some alien whom they suspect. and they have to get a warrant. and during the time taken to do that the alien disappears. This measure would give to certain designated employees of the Department the right to pick up the aliens and hold them for not more than 24 hours. and immediately report to the Commissioner of Immigration. It is a strengthening of the law rather than a weakening of it. Section 10 is simply a routine provision. Section 11 sets up an interdepartmental committee. which. under section 3. can exist for only 3 years. Section 12 is purely a procedural matter. Section 13 is the only immigration feature of the bill. When the quota laws were enacted it was provided that certain preferred quotas should be given for those engaged in agriculture. the thought being that we needed agricultural labor in this country. It has been found that that condition no longer exists. and the last section of the pending bill merely repeals that feature of the law and is a further restriction upon immigration. Stripped of all the talk about "American". about patriotic organizations. and things of that kind. stripped of all that talk. the bill gets down to some very practical facts. Under it we could deport 20.000 people immediately. We could pick up annually 2.500 criminal aliens in this. country. who. the Department says. are not subject to being picked up at the present time. Under it we could send out 2.300 a year more than we can under the present law. It would be a strengthening of the deportation law. Section 3 does not provide that these people shall remain in this country. but it does say that in interdepartmental committee. which can consider all the facts in relation to those who are not criminals. who are of good moral character. and who come within certain classifications. shall have the right to say to them. as some similar agency in every other country in the world has a right to say to such people. "We will not separate your families. We are not going to subject you to these conditions." As I said before. there are some of the cases. undoubtedly. in which the Commissioner of Immigration has been in error. The purpose of the bill will be to submit the findings in those cases to the interdepartmental committee. a committee consisting of a representative of the Department of State. a representative of the Department of Labor. and one of the Department of Justice. and let this country get in line with all the rest of the countries of the world in humane treatment of those who desire to enter the country. Just one other word.