Speech #810322129

Mr. President. let me identify the bill S. 3455. to which the card refers. This is the omnibus bill which I introduced recently. to revise the immigration and naturalization laws of the United States so as to plug up loopholes. strengthen nationalsecurity provisions. and improve and simplify the administration of those laws. This bill embodies the recommendations of a special subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary. which. by authority of the Senate. made. over a period of more than 21/2 years. a very careful and very thorough study of the immigration and naturalization laws and the way in which they are operated and administered. Also some of the provisions of S. 3455 have been incorporated in the bill now before the Senate. It will not be my purpose at this time to discuss this bill any further. but I do want to read into the REcORD what is printed on the message side of these post cards. and comment briefly upon it. This is what is printed on the card: DEAR SENATOR MCCARRAN: I voice my opposition to the bill. S. 3455. because of the many provisions in this legislation that would destroy the democratic rights of 14.000.000 foreignborn Americans. Among the provisions of S. 3455 I oppose are those authorizing the Attorney General to issue a list of organizations he deems to be subversive to the national security and providing for the deportation of noncitizens who are members of such organizations. enabling the Justice Department to hold biased and unfair deportation hearings. enabling the Justice Department to hold certain noncitizens without bail for life (which would mean the establishment of concentration camps in this country). ordering noncitizens to report by mail once a year. I feel that. because of these and many other dangerous provisions. this bill threatens the liberties of all Americans. native as well as foreignborn. and should be defeated by the Congress of the United States. Careful readers will note that the hyphenated word "noncitizen" is used three times. What may not be noted so readily is the fact that noncitizen means alien. It cannot mean anything else. But the card does not use the word "alien" undoubtedly because that word. from a semantic standpoint. has a bad connotation. It is easier to plead the cause of noncitizens than it is to plead the cause of aliens. though you are talking about exactly the same people in both instances. This card starts off with the statement that the provisions of S. 3455 would destroy the democratic rights of 14.000.000 foreignborn Americans. Then it talks about noncitizens until the last sentence. when it refers again to all Americans. native as well as foreignborn. The implication is that foreignborn Americans and noncitizens are the same people. I think this implication is intended. The fact remains. of course. that aliens. on the one hand. and foreignborn Americans. on the other hand. are not the same people. and if you call an alien a noncitizen. that still does not make him an American. The text of this propaganda post card is very carefully and very cleverly prepared. It refers accurately to certain provisions of S. 3455. and refers most inaccurately to other provisions of the bill. and with respect to the provisions to which the reference is technically accurate. the context is clearly designed to convey. and I think does convey. upon cursory reading an entirely erroneous impression. For instance. the bill does containas does the bill now before the Senateprovisions providing for the deportation of certain subversive aliens. and calling those aliens noncitizens is not technically inaccurate. But the implication that a provision for the deportation of subversive aliens threatens the liberties of foreignborn Americans is a non sequitur. It makes no more sense than saying that a ratcatcher is a menace to household pets. and it would not make any difference if one called the ratcatcher a rodent exterminator. He could even call the rats rodents. or even refer to them as fourfooted mammals. which would not be technically inaccurate. but that still would not make the rats household pets. In the next clause this post card charges that the bill contains provisions "enabling the Justice Department to hold certain noncitizens without bail for life." and adds that this would mean the establishment of concentration camps in this country. Notice that here again the card refers to aliens as noncitizens. The bill does not contain any provision authorizing the Justice Department to hold aliens without bail for life. What it does contain is a provision which would authorize the Department of Justice. in the case of an alien who had been ordered deported for good cause. who had been placed under supervision and who had violated the terms of that supervision. to be tried in a court of law for the offense. and there is nothing in that which calls for the establishment of any concentration camps. In the bill now before the Senate the authority to hold deportable aliens in custody is limited to 6 months except in a case where. after court conviction of a criminal offense. an alien is ordered imprisoned. The post card refers to "many other dangerous provisions" in the bill. but it does not tell what they are. It states that the bill "threatens the liberties of all Americans" because of the particular provisions referred to and the "other dangerous provisions" which are not mentioned. but it must be perfectly obvious that the provisions which are spA. cifically mentioned do not refer to Americans at all. but refer only to aliens. and I think it is a fair assumption that if the opponents of this bill knew of any provisions in the bill which did threaten the liberties of Americans. they would have cited those provisions.