Speech #760169209

I have given the gentleman my best judgment and my honest belief and he can take it or leave it. Mr. Chairman. my attention has been directed to the proposal of the 1941 Budget to lower certain funds for field administration of the Immigration and Naturalization Service below the 1940 appropriation levels. The net decrease proposed is $281.310. arrived at by cutting $154.310 off the fieldsalary item for immigrant inspectors. borderpatrol inspectors. and other personnel in the field. also decreasing general field expenses by $140.000. and adding $13.000 for repairing immigration stations. I am particularly concerned at the proposal to reduce the fieldsalary item by some $154.000. because the breakdown in the Budget shows a consequent loss of 96 inspectional positions to the present total authorized strength of 1.736 immigrant inspectors and borderpatrol inspectors. in other words. the Budget. 1941. proposes to cut the inspectional strength. the enforcement arm of the Service. between 5 and 6 percent below present authorization. I have heard no reason advanced to justify the proposal to so impair immigration enforcement in the field service. and indeed I can conceive of none. My reaction to this particular Budget estimate is that instead of proposing a small saving. the proposition actually is that we take a substantial loss within a year or two or three. when the resulting impairment of immigration enforcement will become apparent and when we shall be afflicted with an aggravated deportation problem. We should regard any proposition to cut field immigration funds as meaning an increased number of illegally entered aliens. increased smuggling activities from nearby territories. increased burdens on our jails and almshouses. and. I hardly need say. on our taxpayers. Those of us who are in touch with immigration control realize full well that with conditions in Europe as they now are and the consequent pressure on our immigration quotas. and with alien subversive groups already here but inspired from abroad in their unAmerican activities. the present would be about the worst time in our history to effect petty immediate savings by curtailing our immigration field inspectional force. I speak advisedly when I say to this House that we should hesitate to encourage immigration law violators. and I mean both the aliens themselves and their smugglers. by. even suggesting that there is now being considered this proposal in the Budget to deplete our force of immigrant and borderpatrol inspectors. In my committee work I have come to see a very close relation between vigorous field inspectional activities and suppressed immigrationlaw violations. I have come to see that in just about the measure we supply our field force with inspectors and funds we demonstrate our control of the socalled alien problem. And I realize. too. that there is no economy in weakening immigration inspectional personnel now. only to have to increase the force later and supply increased funds for expenses attendant upon disposing of an accumulation of aliens who have taken advantage of us and gained unlawful entry. Any way you look at the proposal to cut immigration inspectional strength it is poor business. It may be pennies saved now. but you may be assured that we shall have to spend dollars later to get us back anywhere even with the game. And all this is simply a coldblooded way of looking at a most dangerous proposition from the point of view of dollars and cents. It takes no account of the more serious aspects of applying a pennywise policy to immigration field activities. A fact we often overlook is that it is the least desirable. and the criminal classes of aliens who seek illegal means of entry. because they cannot qualify through regular inspection channels. For that situation. therefore. we are compelled at all times to maintain a wellorganized border patrol. to operate at points removed from regular designated ports of entry. and to apprehend and deflect into regular inspection channels those particularly undesirable aliens that seek to evade regular inspection. It is axiomatic that laws will not enforce themselves. We have gone on passing more and more immigration statutes for the past half century. imposing greater and greater burdens of administration. with comparatively little increase in the official force that must be relied on to make these many statutes effective. The time has come for Congress to recognize that immigration control is an essential service of the Government. than which no lawenforcement activity of this Government is more important in its bearing on the moral and physical wellbeing of the American public. Regulation of aliens either entering the United States or already here is of the highest import to our employment conditions. our social conditions. and. I may add. to our political conditions. Any proposal to weaken the field arm of immigration enforcement is of the same order of merit as a proposal to withdraw police protection from a given community. It is one of those things that we cannot afford to do. I have said that no reason has been advanced for proposing to curtail immigration field activities and I have indicated my opinion that the only explanation of this proposal is a sense of false economy in the minds of our budgetary authorities. There are. however. plenty of reasons aside from those I have stated why a cut in immigration inspection personnel is not justified. There is nothing to indicate any lessened need for immigration enforcement at this time. The opposite is true. as we find in the most recent annual report of the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. for the year ending June 30. 1939. in which the Commissioner emphasizes "the immense volume of inspection work" required of the Service. added enforcement burdens. increased number of ports of entry requiring 24hour inspection. "shortage of regular immigrant inspectors at ports of entry." an already inadequate border patrol force. the necessity constantly arising for detailing borderpatrol inspectors away from their patrol duties to perform immigrantinspector duties at ports of entry. the pressing need of strengthening the patrol force because of present European conditions. and greatly increased registry and naturalization work. The Commissioners annual report does not mention the increased number of immigrant inspectors and borderpatrol inspectors that his Service requires to properly staff the ports of entry and international border points so that the Service may be able to cope with the very situations described in his annual report. Perhaps budgetary restrictions prevent setting forth needs of increased personnel. but however that may be. we know that a year ago when the 1940 Budget was in the course of preparation. the various field immigration district heads did make known their respective needs for approximately 500 additional officers. mostly immigrant inspectors and borderpatrol inspectors. It is a rather sad commentary to note that the 1940 appropriation provided for exactly 11 additions to the inspection force. In the light of this experience. it is probable that immigration district heads have been discouraged from reporting their present needs for added inspectional personnel. but from various sources of information I learn that conditions are at least as bad as they were a year ago. and I am impelled to the conclusion that Congress should now determine for itself just what measure of immigration law enforcement it desires. and rather than entertain proposals to cut the existing Service activities. should consider how the Service may be restored to proper lawenforcement capabilities. Further analysis of the 1941 Budget shows that the field salary item appropriated for 1940 is in the amount of $8.133.420. which figure includes $233.000 provided by the Third Deficiency Appropriation Act for the employment of temporary help to overcome an arrearage in naturalization activity. I note that the 1941 Budget estimates for the next fiscal year for the fieldsalary item the amount of $7.979.110 and continues In this figure the $233.000 for temporary employees to overcome naturalization arrearage. Most Members in this House are undoubtedly aware of the present attendant delay in naturalization process throughout the country and would like to see that process expedited so far as the law permits. but in spite of our very natural feelinzs on that subject we should not lose sight of the fact that delay in the naturalization process is at most an inconvenience to aliens already legally here. whereas weakened inspectional strength by any reduction of the force of immigrant inspectors and borderpatrol inspectors will throw upon our hands an increased number of illegal alien entrants and open up a field of increased immigration law violations. I submit. too. that it is a most incongruous situation to continue an amount of $233.000 for the employment of temporary help in naturalization work in the Service field activities and at the same time propose to cut the permanent field establishment of the Service by a similar sum. I am constantly being reminded of the countrywide interest in the subject of adequate. efficient immigration enforcement. and I am in receipt of resolutions and petitions of the following character: