Speech #760052076

This bill. made in order by the pending rule. proposes to create a concentration camp for alien criminals. It proposes to do the same thing that Hitler has been doing in Germany. We have a number of criminals who I agree ought to be deported and for this very reason I am pleading with the Rules Committee to give the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization a rule to permit us to dispose of these alien criminals. This bill proposes in substanceand I am appealing to the Chair. because it will have an effect on my argumentto change present immigration and deportation practices. Under the present law an alien who commits a crime is to be deported. To do so the Government must obtain a passport and send him back to his native country. In certain instances the passport cannot be obtained because either the country of origin has been destroyed under the Versailles Treaty or there has been a change of the map since. Some of these aliens have been here a long time. They should be deported. Under the pending bill. if this man cannot get out within 90 days or obtain a passport to the country of his birth he is to be placed in a concentration camp. If we should have a Secretary of Labor who is not interested in these aliens they can stay there for a lifetime under the provisions of the bill. The whole subject matter of the bill deals almost entirely with jurisdictional matters pertaining to the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. a committee of this House created by Congress many years ago. but because the bill provides for review by the circuit court of appeals. the Committee on the Judiciary assumes jurisdiction of matters pertaining to immigration. naturalization. and deportation. I might here say that the alien has always had the opportunity of judicial review of an administrative order of the Department of Labor by means of the writ of habeas corpus. and. as a side light. it is interesting to note that. notwithstanding the fact that the bill comes from the Judiciary Committee with a favorable report. the right to a writ of habeas corpus guaranteed by the Constitution is apparently withdrawn in the cases covered by the bill. There is another billH. R. 5138along the same line. before the Judiciary Committee. which rightfully belongs before the Immigration Committeethe Hobbs billand I am not disagreeing with my colleague in the principle of getting rid of criminals. even though I would prefer another method. if the bill were properly before the Immigration Committee. to solve this problem which I have been hoping to solve the moment I get a rule from the Rules Committeethe Hobbs bill is not the proper way to solve this problem. It cannot be solved by the creation of camps or prisons for aliens. I call attention further to the fact that this bill is retroactive in nature. Under its provisions you can go back 50 years. If an alien committed only a misdemeanor many years back. under this bill. he can be thrown into a concentration camp if there is no way of deporting him. This. I submit. is a matter that comes under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. While I may have been technically wrong in not asking for reference immediately after the bill was introduced. my argument. Mr. Speaker. is that the basic jurisdiction has not been complied with. Either we are a committee which has the right to develop. to discuss. and to recommend to this House legislation pertaining to particular problems dealing with immigration. naturalization. and deportation. If this be not so. why not abolish the committee? If this is just a hunting proposition. let us know something about it.