We have about 2.500 to 2.800 hardship cases pending at the present time. As the gentleman from Alabama has said. some of these people are afflicted with social diseases. Some of them are afflicted with tuberculosis. and others. for other reasons. might be deported under the 1917 act. But I examined the files of those cases to which he referred. and while there are some instances of that kind. let me say to the members of this Committee this afternoonand I say it on the basis of factual information. gleaned from the same files that the gentleman from Alabama examinedthat he and his colleague over in the Senate. who were sponsors of these restrictionist bills. picked out only the headline cases and the limited number of flagrant cases and sent those out to the attention of the country. and they appeared in the newspapers. It would appear that if we vested some power in the Secretary of Labor perhaps we would let some people remain in this country who were abusers of the privileges of the country.
Identified stereotypes
Some immigrants are described as having social diseases or tuberculosis, implying they are a burden on the country.