As the bill came from the House it gave to the Secretary of Labor the right to permit a hundred persons to remain in the United States to "promote the cultural. educational. and industrial interests of the people of the United States." The hearing before the committee disclosed the fact that in a religious institution in the State of Texas there are. I believe. 63 religious students who have come into this country. who. because of their situation. will never leave the convent or monastery where they are. and the sole purpose of section 10 is to permit those students to remain in that convent. We amended the bill so as to restrict it by striking out the words "if the alien Is found by the Secretary of Labor to. be a person whose presence in the United States will promote the cultural. educational. and industrial interests of the people of the United States" and inserted in lieu of those words the language "as a novitiate student in a religious order." The sole and exclusive purpose of that is to permit 61 or 63 students. as I remember the number. in a convent or monastery in Texas. the right to stay there. and not be subject to deportation. Mr. President. this Is a simple bill. The Members of the Senate will remember that this question has been before the Congress for a good many years. and time after time Congress has adjourned without taking any action on it. Time after time Congress has adjourned after merely passing a resolution which provided that the Secretary of Labor was instructed to permit the socalled hardship cases to stay in the United States. It seems to me extremely unfortunate that those on both sides of this subject should be so critical of an effort to try to pass a fair piece of legislation on the question of deportation. We. have the one group composed of those who wish to deport all aliens. who think that all the aliens should be removed from the United States. They have not the slightest semblance of sympathy with them. and for them this bill means deportation of 20.000 now. and deportation of four to five thousand a year. which means giving to the Secretary of Labor the power to go out and find the people and have warrants issued immediately. It means reducing the amount of immigration by repealing the agricultural exemption. It means a strengthening of the law so far as immigration and deportation are concerned. They are not willing however. to accept the bill. because of the fact that on the other side there is a group in this country. which cannot exceed 8.000 people. because under the law the Secretary is specifically limited to 8.000. and we tried to counteract that by charging them up to the quotas of the countries from whence they came. so that it will not increase the number of aliens in this country. Because of that fact. those who profess to be so much in favor of strictness of regulation of immigration and deportation refuse to permit the Congress to pass a bill upon the subject at all. Those on the other side who are overly friendly. in my opinion. overly sympathetic with the aliens. who think that the alien is a little better than the American citizen. oppose the bill because of the fact that it would give the Secretary of Labor the right to deport 20.000 persons. Mr.
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immigration deportation