Speech #760201780

I submit that the American people are entitled to answers to those questions propounded by the Senator from Oregon in his resolution. I hope that we may see fit to provide the committee with the money with which to conduct the investigation. By the way. the resolution was favorably reported by the Committee on Immigration. It is time we made an investigation into the immigration problem. It is time we should ascertain whether or not our immigration and deportation laws are being properly administered. Many people wonder how in the world immigrants continue to enter the United States outside the quotas. They come in on visitors visas. and when they get here they never have to leave. They can lose themselves in the mass of the 135.000.000 inhabitants of the United States. and we have difficulty in ever finding them. because we have no registration and fingerprinting law in this country. Thousands enter our country on students visas. One will get a visa permitting him to enter this country so that he may study in our universities. then he has the visa continued from time to time. and does not comply with the regulations. and does not leave. It is not the fault of the law. it is the fault of the administrators of the law. They are the ones who have permitted these aliens to enter under students visas and under tourists visas. They are the ones who should be condemned. I can give an illustration. and then I shall conclude. A young Hindu came to this country about 17 years ago from a place in India. He advised the State Department that he was desirous of entering this country for the purpose of pursuing his studies. and he was permitted to enter on a students visa. I understand he wanted to become an engineer. This young man went to Raleigh. N. C.. where he entered the State college. During his college course he remained here on a students visa. which was continued from time to time. After he had graduated. he decided that he wanted to live in the United States of America. as all foreigners wish to remain in the United States. the best country on the face of the earth. He decided he wanted to stay here. and in that he exhibited very good judgment. After this man left college he married a North Carolina girl. and as a result of that. marriage there were born two children. I believe they have a little boy 5 years old and a little girl about 18 months old. according to my recollection of the facts. as gathered from a newspaper article published in one of my homeState papers. Time and again this man made application for a continuation of the students visa. This Hindu gentleman. who was not a citizen of the United States. and who. under our laws. could never become a naturalized citizen. married a North Carolina girl. and as a result of that union there were born two children. as I have just stated. A short time ago a warrant of deportation was issued against him. It was served. and he was to appear in the city of New York along with a group collected there for deportation by the Labor Department. He was so distressed because he would have to leave the United States and would have to be separated from his dear little wife and his lovely little children that the newspaper reports stated he attempted to take his own life by throwing himself beneath the wheels of a swiftpassing locomotive. He was taken to the hospital. North Carolina was up in arms over the fact that this Hindu gentleman. who had married a North Carolina girl and was the father of two children. who are American citizens. since they were born in this country. had to be dragged from the arms of his wife. She was crushed. My heart went out in sympathy to her. and for that man I had a feeling of sympathy. despite the fact that being an intelligent man he must have known that he could never become an American citizen. that the law would not permit him to become naturalized. but he married this girl and they wanted to take him away. To take this man away will crush that dear little wife. it will render fatherless those two dear little children and bring misery and unhappiness into their lives. In my heart I have deep sympathy for them.