Speech #740226016

I include my address made over a National Broadcasting Co. network Thursday. April 23. 1936. as follows: I desire this evening to explain tO my radio audience some of the tactics being employed by certain opponents of the KerrCoolidge bill in their efforts to prevent orderly consideration of this bill on its own merits on the floors of both Houses of Congress. At the outset permit me to make this unqualified statement. which can easily be verified by anyone who will care to examine its provisions: The KerrCoolidge bill. as amended. is not a liberal immigration measure but a deportation bill of drastic nature. Let me impress upon you that this KerrCoolidge bill is the only major legislative proposal dealing in general with aliens within the United States that has been favorably reported from the appropriate committees of both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives during this Congress and is awaiting consideration on the floors of both Houses of Congress. Opponents of the KerrCoolidge bill have succeeded in having another bill introduced in Congress. the socalled StarnesReynolds bill. as a sort of buffer bill. toward which all antialien groups in the country can direct their support. There is even a rumor heard occasionally that an effort will be made to offer the StarnesReynolds bill as an amendment in substitution for the text of the KerrCoolidge bill. One member of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization has been openly informed that opponents of the KerrCoolidge bill have made an arrangement whereby every bill reported from the committee will be denied any consideration on the floor of the House unless and until the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization favorably reports some bill to the House providing for the mandatory deportation of all unnaturalized aliens from the United States immediately. One of the Senators from the State of North Carolina. a gentleman for whom I have a high regard. recently held the Senate floor for 4 days in a oneman filibuster against the orderly consideration of the KerrCoolidge bill. and while making this filibuster speech stated in partI quote the Senator: "I wish to state to my distinguished friends in the Senate. I am trying to talk this bill to death." By means of radio addresses. by printed pamphlets. by letters. telegrams. and petitions sent to the Members of Congress and Senators. and even by speeches in the halls of Congress. the opponents of the KerrCoolidge bill are conducting a campaign of vilification. slander. and- misrepresentation of facts. The only immediate effect of this unAmerican campaign is to create a situation among the foreignborn people living in the United States from which this country will be a long time recovering. A reign of terror has been created -by the unthinking threats of mandatory and wholesale deportation of all aliens. Now. for a few moments. let us calmly consider the benefits to be secured by the prompt enactment of the KerrCoolidge bill. In the first place. let me say quite frankly that this is the first major legislative proposal in many years. dealing exclusively with aliens subject to the immigation laws who are living within the United States. which has received favorable action by the committees of both the House and the Senate so as to have both the Senate bill and the House bill on the calendars of both Houses of Congress at the same time. In the second place. let me emphasize the fact that the enactment of the KerrCoolidge bill will not enable any alien in any foreign territory to secure admission to the United States. unless that alien is right now entitled to admission under provisions of the immigration laws as they now exist. In the third place. let me assure you that this bill will decrease the number of lawful admissions of aliens. who have never before been In the United States and who seek entry after the enactment of this bill as quota Immigrants. This result is obtained in two ways: first. every alien in the United States who is permitted to remain here pursuant to provisions of this bill will be deducted from the quota of the country of which such alien is a native. and so if he remains here he prevents some other native of his country from coming here as a quota immigrant. second. the preference under the quota now enjoyed by skilled agriculturists and their wives and minor children is repealed by this bill. so that hereafter those aliens will only be entitled to come here as quota immigrants without any preference quota. and this will have the effect of keeping most of them out until they can secure a regular quota number. The enactment of the KdrrCoolidge bill will not change or repeal the existing provisions of the immigration law requiring the mandatory deportation of alien criminals. anarchists. Communists. violators of the Federal narcotic laws. who are not only narcotic addicts. or persons in the immoral classes subject to deportation. Nor will the bill extend to these classes of aliens any benefits whatever not now enjoyed by them under existing provisions of law. Four new classes of criminal aliens. who are not now subject to deportation under existing law. are added to the deportable classes. But. because of the drastic provisions created by that law. it is necessary in the public interest to authorize the use of limited discretion as to the actual deportation of aliens in these new deportable classes. Other provisions of the bill will greatly increase the apprehension and detention of aliens thought to be subject to deportation until a proper warrant is issued for their arrest. This will rid our country of some 20.000 criminals. This will attempt to treat the alien in the noncriminal classes. whose status under the immigration law is questionable whilehe remains here. as though he were a normal human being. and gives him a chance to have his status adjusted without undue expense or delay. so that he may not be forced to leave his home and fireside in this country. His status will be adjusted so that he will be in a position to proceed under our naturalization laws and eventually become a citizen. The KerrCoolidge bill. however. does not grant citizenship. either directly or indirectly. to any alien whatsoever. One of the major objections expressed by those opposed to the KerrCoolidge bill is that it grants discretion to be exercised in certain limited gfoups of deportation cases. I feel the advocates of the StarnesReynolds bill. who oppose the authorized use of discretion under the KerrCoolidge bill. are not as sincere as they might be. My reason for this statement is that in the StarnesReynolds bill will be found a vastly more extensive grant to use discretion when it authorizes consular officers abroad. in their judgment. to deny visas to aliens who are unable to pass the consuls intelligence test as to whether or not the applicant for a visa has--and I quote-"intelligence equal to a normal rate of an average sampling of nativeborn American white stock." In other respects this bill abounds in discretional features. I consider one whole portion of the StarnesReynolds bill. namely. that portion which seeks to establish permanent fingerprinting records and registry of all aliens in the United States. as a particularly vicious proposal at this time. This proposal. if enacted into law. would definitely establish an alien bloc in the United States on unAmerican principles. The alien would become a selfconscious member of a group set apart by operation of law from the citizen neighbors in each community and the ready assimilation of such aliens into the United States citizenship would be rendered vastly more difficult than it is under existing provisions of law. I can think of no more fitting way of closing my remarks than reading to you a little quip from the New York Times entitled "One Good Plan": "One earnest lady would solve the unemployment problem by deporting 7.500.000 aliens and give their jobs to Americans. Actually the results may be even more gratifying than she anticipates. For instance. sending 7.500.000 people out of the country means a great many new jobs in shipping and shipbuilding. and land transportation of all kinds. There will also be hundreds of thousands of new jobs for watchmen to keep an eye on the millions of homes deserted by the deportees. But this is not all. Actually there are fewer than 3.000.000 unnaturalized aliens in the country over the age of 21. If we are to deport 7.500.000 aliens. we shall have to begin by first importing about �4.000.000 of them. and this again means a boom in transportation employment. It may be. of course. that this earnest lady expects to get her 7.500.000 aliens by first depriving all naturalized citizens of their citizenship rights and making them real foreigners. That would create at least a million new clerical jobs. The more you look at the scheme the more wonderful it becomes."