Speech #760214653

I believe if I had to write the reorganization plan that is before us today. I could. without unseeming ego or immodesty. have improved upon the handiwork of the President of the United States. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. after all. Is only remotely related to the fujnctions of the Department of Labor. In the course of experience obtained as a member of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization for a period of 4 years. I was rather persuaded that the function of immigration properly should be lodged in the State Department. because there is a coordination of effort in connection with the consulates throughout the whole wide world dealing with the admission of people into the United States. and since it Involves a relationship with a citizen of a foreign country It Is. more properly speaking. a function of the State Department. The Visa or Passport Division still operates in the State Department and certainly the whole question of exclusion. of admission. and of deportation of aliens. with the exception of the investigatorial features. should have gone to the State Department. Secondly. the Bureau of Naturalization. now incorporated. of course. in this joint service. might properly have gone to the Department of Justice. because all of their work is intimately related to the functions of the Federal courts. The hearings are held and the final admission concluded in a Federal court and there is no logical reason why this function should not go to Justice. I would have taken the border patrol of some 856 people. under the leadership of a very capable patrolman. Mr. Kelly--and I take off my hat to him--and consolidated it with the customs patrol in the Treasury Department In the interest of economy and efficiency. And. finally. insofar as those functions are concerned that relate to investigation. that relate to the investigation of those aliens within our borders who have been guilty of crimes. who have made illegal entry into this country. who have subJected themselves to deportation by virtue of offenses committed against our laws. that function might very properly be lodged in the Department of Justice and administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is to be assumed that this will be a permanent transfer and therefore it should be approached from the standpoint of the strict merits of the proposal rather than from a standpoint of personalities. It is rather unfortunate that a Cabinet member in 1937 should have delivered a rather casual opinion with respect to sitdown strikes and. subsequently. with respect to pending cases like the Strecker case and the Bridges case. which served to develop a lack of confidence and a lack of faith on the part of many people in this country. and now in an hour of emergency they are afraid that possibly a continuation of those functions in that Department will not be discharged with that diligence and dispatch that might. be necessary in a rather emergent hour.