Speech #810272780

Moreland (258 U. S. 433. 443)). EM The bill seeks to exempt the Immigration and Naturalization Service from the procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (sec. 2 p. 17). Leaving out of consideration the fact that the service has consistently insisted that it was not covered by that act or required to comply with it (8 Monthly Review 103). it is plain that procedural due process as embodied in the Administrative Procedure Act is more important where human liberty and not mere property rights are involved. "Probably more than any other Government agency the Immigration and Naturalization Service sets in bold relief the most difficult problems of interpreting the Administrative Procedure Act" (56 Yale Law Journal. Federal Administrative Procedure Act. 670. 697). The separation of functions has long been urged on the Service. Thus. in the Wickersham report. Mr. Oppenheimer writes (supra. p. 144): "Members of the same local office make the investigations. conduct the preliminary examinations. decide whether an interpreter is needed. act as interpreter and as stenographer. conduct the warrant hearing. and make a recommendation to Washington as to whether or not the suspect should be deported. Often the same individual acts in a number of these capacities." The Secretary of Labors Committee on Administratitve Procedure in its 1940 report on the Immigration and Naturalization Service. pages 7882. criticized the Combining of the functions of detection and decision. of prosecution and judging. With a history like this the service. more than any other agency should welcome and abide by the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. The Hobbs bill of 1949. nonetheless than the 1940 version. is a totalitarian measure.2 Civil liberty is no less destroyed by indefinite imprisonment in Jail by Executive order than by detention in a concentration camp.