Speech #750061154

Yes. they have let her stay. awaiting the action of Congress. and they have been accused of violating the law for keeping this and similar cases in the country. and there are hundreds of others in the same category. If there has been any failure on the part of the immigration authorities to deport such cases I have information that much of the humanitarian leniency shown was due to the insistence of Members of both bodies here on the hill. who. when the showdown came. left the Bureau of Immigration holding the sack by voting against the very discretion they were asking it to exercise in individual cases. Mr. Chairman. I have heard it stated by those better versed than I in the immigration laws. that they are a hodgepodge beyond the understanding of the Bureau of Immigration itself. but it does not take a very deep knowledge of the subject to understand this bill. It is a very simple measure. It is practically all to be found in sections 1 and 2 of the bill. Section 1 deals with deportations and section 2 with the hardship cases. Section 1 provides that an alien shall be promptly deported. regardless of when he entered the United States. under the following conditions: (1) If he is hereafter convicted in the United States within 5 years of the institution of deportation proceedings of a crime involving moral turpitude. for which he is committed to a penal institution. (2) or has been convicted in the United States within 5 years of the institution of deportation proceedings against him of the crime of possessing or carrying any firearms. (3) or has been convicted of violation of any narcotic law. State or local. (4) or has knowingly and for gain aided in any manner in the illegal entry of another alien into the United States. Section 5 states that these provisions are in addition to the provisions of existing law. so there is no weakening or liberalizing of the existing immigration laws. but a real tightening up of the laws. It Is said that these provisions will enable the deportation of 23.000 criminal aliens who are now in this country. The objection to this section is that it does not go far enough. but in view of the fact that there is no law for the deportation of these criminal classes. and that the defeat of the bill would still leave this large class of alien criminals at large in the country. to be handled in some way by future legislation. it strikes me that the bill is a desirable step forward and should not be defeated simply because it does not do more. Now. Mr.