Speech #810183851

Mr. President. In respect to their particular fields. the decision of the Consular Service is final. and the same is true In the case of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Under the immigration laws. there is no appeal from Its rulings. The only appeal is to an Appeals Board within the Department of Justice. and from it to the Attorney General. There is no appeal back to the Displaced Persons Commission. In other words. the Displaced Persons Commission cannot and does not overrule either the Consular Service or the Immigration Service. Moreover. it seems to us that the committee provision would preclude the Board of Immigration Appeals. which is not a part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. and the Attorney General from making decisions on appeal. as under present Immigration law. In other words. under the rules of the Immigration and Naturalization Service an applicant now has the right to go before the Board of Immigration Appeals. to have it determine whether the primary inspector has made a mistake. To take one further step. does the word "exclusively" in this connection seek to remove the authority of the courts to review such "final" consular and immigration determinations? Intertwined with these complexities is the authority granted to the Displaced Persons Commission by the law. and not diminished by the committee version of the bill. to issue regulations for the admission into the United States of eligible displaced persons and eligible orphans. The consuls and immigration authorities evidently would not have to pay any attention to the clear congressional intent. because they could ignore the regulations which. when issued in accordance with the act. have the force of law. In the administration of the present law. all determinations of admissibility under the normal immigration law are made by the Foreign Service and by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. and all determinations of eligibility under the specific provisions of the Displaced Persons Act are made by the Displaced Persons Commission. This practice is based upon a mutual agreement among these three agencies as to the most effective and economical way to carry out the intent of the law. and has been working most satisfactorily. And it is obviously the congressional Intention that this should have been done. Under the present procedure. over 28 percent of all the cases preliminarily considered by the Commission for eligibility are rejected or disqualified by the Commission before they ever get to the consul. and without the necessity of the long. expensive investigation which is conducted in cases of prima facie eligibility. If final determination of eligibility under the special provisions of the Displaced Persons Act. as well as of admissibility under the normal immigration law. must be made by the consuls and Immigration Service. then the Displaced Persons Commission must forward to them all cases. even those it now rejects. This would automatically slow up the process and would cause disappointment to sponsors in America who feel that the process is now sufficiently complicated and already too slow. One of the complaints I have received is in regard to the time it takes to get a displaced person to the United States and the delay arising before a prospective employer can have a displaced person brought into the United States.