Speech #750061130

I rise In opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman. as I explained this morning in detail. this section in no sense increases immigration. The only effect of it is to give preference to the alien who is here and subject to deportation. and who has family ties. as against some alien who. for the first time is seeking admittance under the existing quota. There is now a quota of 153.000 from the quota countries. All the countries In the Western Hemisphere are on a nonquota basis. Therefore. it comes down to the simple proposition that if there is an alien in this country who is subject to deportation. not for the commission of a crime but because he stayed longer than his permit entitled him to stay. or for some other similar reason. you permit him to remain in the United States instead of someone else coming in. Let me read you an explanation of the kind of cases these are. Mr. Shaughnessy. who has been in the Immigration Service for 20 years and is under civil service. and certainly cannot be accused of being partisan. at my request wrote me this letter. from which I quote: I find from an examination of a group of approximately 2.000 cases which have been studied that about 92 percent of the aliens involved are persons subject to deportation because they entered without inspection under the immigration laws-. Mind you. prior to 1924 entering the country illegally was no crime. or because they failed to depart from the United States after having legally been admitted for a temporary period. About 55 percent of these aliensThe ones they are about to deportwould leave behind them citizen spouses in the United States. and about 30 percent would leave legally admitted alien spouses behind them.