Speech #760039791

The majority of the Members of the Congress know very little about this subject. It is difficult to understand. The best illustration I can give you of this fact is that yesterday when bills on the Private Calendar were being called. a group of objectors. without knowing the merit or demerit of any of the bills reported by the Committee on Immigration. made objections to all these bills. I do not think there is an objector. with possibly one or two exceptions. who could tell the House on what basis he made the objection. Mr. Speaker. this is not the way to legislate. It is not the way to treat a committee that toils and works hard listening to the evidence of witnesses and finally brings a bill onto this floor for consideration. The reason is we do not know what the policy of this Congress or any other Congress may be so far as immigration is concerned. Some people write about immigrants who have never seen an immigrant. Some people talk about immigrants who have never had the opportunity of associating with them. Some people talk about immigration when they should take the trouble and opportunity to study the problem as I and others have for many years. I want this country to be as safe as it can be from espionage activities. whether it be by aliens or citizens. I do not want people in this country who do not belong here. I would like to see all persons who should be removed from this country deported. However. when the Committee on Immigration. which consists of 21 members. has given a question very careful study and consideration and has brought a matter onto the floor of this House. it should receive proper treatment. You will see Member after Member coming from sections that never saw an immigrant object just because it is an immigrant. I say that system is wrong and should be corrected. The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization has tried to correct this matter. How? After 2 or 3 years of study the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization unanimously reported a resolution which would authorize it to conduct an investigation of all our immigration laws. which are complicated. and of all our deportation laws. which are complicated. and the other questions involved in our code. As I stated. the report from that committee was unanimous. We feel that we ought to have the opportunity of studying this matter and bringing back to the Congress a policy which will forever stop the smuggling of aliens into the United States. We feel we should be able to present a law which you and I will understand. We cannot possibly understand the law as the code stands today. We appeared before the Rules Committee in connection with House Resolution 115. introduced by my colleague the gentleman from Indiana . the ranking member of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. After presenting our views to the Rules Committee it unanimously reported a resolution which would authorize the Committee on Immigration to make a study of all these problems not only with reference to the code but with reference to the smuggling of aliens through the back door. You have closed the front door. and in some instances you have refused to unite a father and a mother or a sister and a brother. In some instances you have practically barred immigration into this country of white people. However. the back door Is wide open. Thousands of undesirable aliens are coming in through the back door from Mexico and Canada. The committee is trying to correct this situation. The Committee on Rules gave us a rule. What happened? After manipulations lasting about a week or 10 daysand I do not know who the manipulators arethe resolution was brought back to the Committee on Rules and objection was made by my distinguished friend the gentleman from Texas that the language in a certain portion of the resolution might result in activities overlapping the work of his committee investigating unAmerican activities. In order to convince the Committee on Rules and the Congress that it was not the purpose of the Committee on Immigration to interfere with any of the problems concerned in investigating unAmerican activities the Committee on Immigration agreed to withdraw the entire resolution. eliminate the objectionable features. and deal solely with the questions that relate to the problems of immigration and naturalization. deportation. and expatriation. We had a hearing on that resolution. which I believe is House Resolution 144. After convincing everybody in the room. as we thought. that it is most essential that the committee have the power to subpena and the power to go into all these questions and problems. one man was able to hold back the report of the Committee on Rules. He wants to study three lines. He wants to know why we should recodify the naturalization and deportation laws. It is impossible today for any lawyer to understand the naturalization and deportation law. not to speak of the difficulty it presents to ordinary people. This law has not been changed. but has been added to. and nothing has been repealed. Since 1907 one section after another has been added to the law. and by the time you get through reading the law you do not know where you are.