Speech #750049909

Those who are serving this House as the official objectors for the Private Calendar have pursued a policy of according to each of these cases the identical treatment given to all others in the same class. Many of the cases are seeking the favorable action of the Congress due to the fact that to deport one or both members of a family would work an undue hardship on the children or in sacrificing a business that has been established. After going over the facts I can hardly believe that these aliens were entirely innocent of the fraud that was perpetrated when forged documents were used in obtaining the necessary visa. In each case the alien had to sign his name across the photograph attached to the visa. and where an assumed name was being used the alien could not avoid the knowledge that the procedure was irregular. to say the least. Today there are about 4.000.000 aliens resident in this country. Nine thousand aliens are being deported annually. and an equal number are allowed to leave the country voluntarily when they become subject to deportation by reason of violation of the laws. Naturally many of these cases are difficult to decide when other considerations besides the question of law violation enters the case. Of such a group are these socalled hardship cases now before us. To pass general legislation authorizing the Secretary of Labor to use discretion in suspending the laws in special cases would not be desirable. Hence it becomes necessary to follow this procedure of treating each case individually by means of a private bill before Congress. While this entails more work for the Congress. it nevertheless gives the necessary protection to the immigration laws that is desired. The following remarks concerning each case will. I trust. be helpful to the Members in deciding these cases. H. R. 2557 The bill provides for the cancelation of deportation proceedings against Ruth Radin and also provides for the validation of her application for citizenship. which she made in 1932. Ruth Radin is a native of Lithuania. aged 31. who entered the United States on May 3. 1927. at New York. on the steamer Olympic. Obtaining a visa for Cuba. she left Lithuanla and went to Berlin. Germany. There. she alleges. she was approached by an agent who said that she could get a Berlin passport to the United States since Lithuania had been under German dominion. The cost. including steamship fare. was $150. Her passport and visa were genuine. but the supporting documents on which the visa was issued were fraudulent. A false birth certificate giving her name as Rahel Funk and the place of birth as Germany was used when she personally applied to the American consul at Berlin for her visa. This alien stayed 10 weeks in Berlin while her visa was being arranged. The Department records allege that this alien clearly knew that the documents she used were fraudulent. In 1932 she applied for citizenship under the name of Rahel Funk. but in June 1933. when she married Hershel Radin. she did so under her own family name of Ruth Winkelstein. There are no children of this marriage. and she has but one uncle residing in this country. H. I. 2556 This bill also provides for the cancelation of deportation proceedings and for the validation of application for citizenship in favor of Joseph Herschmann. This alien is a native of Poland. aged about 36. who entered the United States on September 8. 1924. at Boston. on the steamship Haverford. Desiring to come to this country. the aliens uncle in the United States sent him an affidavit of support. with which he went to the American Consulate in Warsaw. Poland. While standing in line a stranger speaking broken Polish and representing himself to be attached to the consulate. told him that being a young man his visa could be expedited upon paying a fee for the service. Going to an office in the rear wing of the same building in which the consulate was located. the stranger obtained the aliens personal data and had him sign a blank visa application. Returning to this same office 2 weeks later he received his passport and visa for which he paid $150. The alien paid for his own steamer fare over and above the payment for his visa. This visa was a forgery. The alien has three times applied for his first citizenship papers but has never received them. He later married a legally resident alien and has one child attending public school.