Speech #760053940

As Representative MuRnocx of Utah said: "If the criminal may be condemned without a trial today. perhaps tomorrow the innocent man may be condemned." Similarly. if we condone the imprisonment of aliens. not as punishment for crime but because we wish to be rid of them. may we not find excuses for detaining undesirable groups of our own citizens? The troubled state of the world is largely responsible for the presence in this country of aliens who have no homeland to which they can return. It is a situation which prevents the effective enforcement of our deportation laws and creates serious problems for the authorities. However. aliens who break our laws are punishable for the specific offenses they commit. Under the American system of government no man is subject to imprisonment merely because his past record makes him suspect. Supporters of the Hobbs bill contend that It merely provides for a civil procedure and has nothing to do with crime and punishment. But since detention might continue indefinitely. it cannot be justified as merely incidental to deportation proceedings. This bill has been justly denounced as unAmerican and undemocratica negation of the policies and principles which we associate with liberal political Institutions. The editor may denounce this bill as unAmerican. as he does. he may denounce it as undemocratic. as he does. He may denounce it as a denial of those policies and principles which we associate with liberal political institutions. as he does. If he had read the report which accompanied the bill. he would have learned that it applies to those criminal aliens. some of whom are prostitutes and some of whom are procurers. some of whom are purveyors of narcotics. who are in this country. who are criminals who cannot. because their native lands refuse to receive them. be deported to those lands. Just what course would the writer of this editorial advise that America take with these alien criminals? Is it his suggestionand apparently it isthat they be permitted to circulate freely among the decent citizens of our land and there ply their avocation?