In the first place. after having heard the articles of impeachment read. I am not aware of any specific charges that would justify an impeachment proceeding of any kind. The broad references to the immigration laws reveal only the most superficial knowledge of the statutes. Who is responsible for these impeachment proceedings? Was it the Dies committee or was it a minority member of that committee? The press. I am sure. will imply that the majority members of that committee. who are Democrats. have brought in an impeachment indictment against a Cabinet member. the Secretary of Labor. and two others in that Department. the Commisisoner of Immigration and the Solicitor. Is it the position of the Dies committee that the charges contained in the impeachment indictment have been sustained before that committee or a subcommittee thereof or is this merely a frivolous gesture at impeachment for the -purpose of furthering some political ambitions for 1940? Mr. Speaker. I am chairman of the Committee on Immigration. and I may say that this committee Is continually faced with problems of the most difficult character. technical as well as social. We tried our hardest to determine what constitutes a Communist. May I say that after a great deal of study we found it was impossible to deport certain groups that we believed were communistic because the law was defective. For the last 4 or 5 years I begged this House for a resolution which would give the Committee on Immigration an opportunity to study the whole problem. Every time I presented such resolution there was great protest on this side of the aisle. The Committee on Immigration was refused the right to sit during the recess of the Congress. We wanted to determine the many problems that are now covered by the law. Some parts of the law should be repealed. and the whole law ought to be revised.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration