Speech #770001812

What other form of action this recommendation should take and how other legislation could be constitutionally enacted without violating our Bill of Rights apparently has not been answered. either by the Dies committee or by anyone else. This recommendation is therefore merely a pious wish and it has no stamina of any kind. nor any intelligent basis upon which it could be promoted. 6. The enactmen- of legislation to stop all immigration from foreign countries that refuse to accept the return of their nationals found under American law to be deportable from this country. This legislation is made necessary by the fact that some foreign governments have refused to accept their own citizens who have been ordered deported by the United States Government. This is a particularly vicious statement of recommendations where. instead of tackling the question of unAmerican propaganda. the Dies committee takes it upon itself to write legislation dealing with immigration. It seeks to prevent the entry into this country of any person who could not be deported back to his country of origin. Evidently. if this is the case. then every person who escapes the tyranny of a Hitler. or a Mussolini. or a Stalin will never be able to enter the United States because. under the laws of Germany. Italy. and Russia. no person who has left those countries could ever be deported back to them. In this way we will make every person who lives under an oppressive regime ineligible for entry tb the United States.. It would be the kind of a law which. if it existed at the time of the French Revolution. would have prevented a man like Albert Gallatin from entering the United States. and. if it existed in 1848. would have prevented Carl Schurz from entering the United States. In fact. our best type of immigration usually came from countries which imposed political restrictions on its citizens and which compelled them to escape the tyranny of their masters. We used to pride ourselves on being the asylum of all the oppressed populations. but Instead of becoming the haven of refuge for people who suffer under the yoke of tyrants we will rewrite our immigration laws to bar them automatically from entering the United States. This cannot be done. and I am sure Congress will never authorize this type" of legislation. 7. As previously stated in the body of the report. the committee recommends the passage of added legislation to place restrictions on the distribution of totalitarian propaganda. when that distribution involves any cost to the American taxpayers. and when such propaganda emanates and is shipped from foreign sources.