Speech #760039240

It was the desire of the objectors officially appointed by the minority and majority leaders on both sides of the aisle to have some expression on the part of the membership of the House as to what their desire might be in regard to the passage of these bills. and that was the basis upon which we made our objections during the last Congress. In view of the fact that the House in its consideration of the omnibus bill voted on a rollcall vote to pass a majority of the bills included therein. we feel it is not incumbent upon us during this Congress to again object to these bills. as we did in the last Congress. However. in view of the fact that the majority of these cases show that the immigrant came into this country by means of some fraud. either by forging a birth certificate or obtaining a fraudulent visa. we do not believe these immigrants should be placed on a par with other persons who came over here from Europe after waiting the prescribed time under the quota in order to come lawfully into the country. For this reason I have prepared a series of amendments -to be offered to each of these bills. which would deny the lawful admission into this country but would admit the alien as a permanent resident of the country. It would deny him the right to obtain citizenship. however. In that way we would not work a hardship upon the family of the immigrant. In many cases they.have lived here from 10 to 12 years. have married and areraising a family. they are engaged in business. and if at this time we would send the immigrant back to his native country it would mean breaking up the home and perhaps the destruction of a business which is the sole means of income for the family. It would probably work irreparable hardship in some cases. We propose to offer these amendments to give permanent residence but denying citizenship to such alien.