Speech #810322129

I invite the attention of the Senate to the fifth segment of the bill. which I do not believe will require extensive discussion. Under existing law. alien residents of the United States are required to report in writing to the Department of Justice each change of residence and new address within 5 days from the date of such change. and a violation of the requirement is made a penal offense. The Department of Justice has informed me that the requirement of the present law is frequently not complied with. with the result that it is exceedingly difficult to locate many aliens who may be deportable. One of the reasons why the present law is not complied with is that aliens do not take notice of the existence of the provision which requires notification upon change of residence. Pursuant to the recommendation of the Department of Justice. the bill amends the Alien Registration Act of 1940 so as to require annual registration of alien residents on January 1 of each year. It is felt that this provision will simplify the registration requirements. Mr. President. we come now to consideration of the sixth segment of Senate bill 4037 which has been incorporated from certain provisions of Senate bill 3455. which I introduced to rewrite the immigration and naturalization laws. These provisions are designed to screen out subversives who seek to cloak their nefarious practices with the garb of United States citizenship. The first provision. which appears in section 25 of Senate bill 4037. would amend section 305 of the Nationality Act of 1940. as amended. as follows: First. It would definitely prohibit the naturalization of any person who within the preceding 10 years had been a member of or affiliated with any organization that is registered or required to be registered as a Communist organization under the bill. Under the present law. where membership of an applicant for citizenship in an organization alleged to be of a subversive character is in issue. the Government must not only show memberships or affiliation but also must prove in each case that the organization advocates the overthrow of the Government by force or violence. Under the bill. the prescription of Communist organizations for registration purposes will be available for use in naturalization proceedings. The bill provides an escape for a person seeking citizenship who has been an innocent joiner of a Communistfront organization. provided that within 3 months from the date upon which such organization was registered or required to be registered under the bill. he shall withdraw from such organization. The second amendment to the present section 305 of the Nationality Act of 1940 which is made by section 25 of the bill is designed to meet one of the outstanding weaknesses of our naturalization laws. Under the present law. a person who is naturalized is free to join any and all organizations that he pleases. and. short of treason. to do any and all acts necessary to carry out any subversive plans he may have had in mind when he became a naturalized citizen. To meet this situation the bill provides that any person naturalized after January 1. 1951. who within 5 years next following such naturalization becomes a member of or affiliated with any organization. membership in or affiliation with which at the time of naturalization either they precluded him from naturalization. would be considered prima facie as not attached to the principles of the Constitution and not well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States at the time of his naturalization. We had bitter experience. Mr. President. in the socalled Bund cases when an attempt was made to denaturalize naturalized citizens who were affiliated with the GermanAmerican Bund. While most of those denaturalization proceedings were brought on the ground of fraud. some of them were based on the ground that naturalization had been illegally procured and some were based on the ground that the oath had been taken with a mental reservation. A typical case was Bergmann against United States. in which the court held that the naturalized citizen obtained naturalization by fraud. since he was not. at the time of naturalization. in fact attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States. and did not in fact forswear allegiance to Germany. As of November 1948. which is the last date on which I have accurate statistics. there were 58 denaturalization cases pending. involving persons who there was reason to believe were Communists or who had engaged in subversive activities. In addition to these cases there were pending 144 petitions for naturalization which were under investigation because of suspected elements of a subversive character. But under the present law it is exceedingly difficult to weed out those subversives who seek to worm their way into the fabric of our society with the badge of citizenship. Another important provision of this segment of the bill which would strengthen our naturalization laws prohibits naturalization of an alien against whom there is outstanding a final finding of deportability. Under this provision no petition for naturalization shall be finally heard by a naturalization court if there is pending against the petitioner a deportation proceeding pursuant to a warrant of arrest. We have under the present law the anomalous situation of cases of aliens being naturalized when at the time of naturalization would have were deportable or deportation proceedings were pending against them. Three such cases. decided within the past several years. are in point. The first case I shall mention is United States v. Waskowski (158 Fed. 2d. 962). in which the circuit court of appeals refused to take away citizenship granted by a district court to one who was naturalized. notwithstanding the fact that an order of deportation. which could not be executed. was outstanding against him. The second case. that of Petition of Popper (79 Fed. Sup. 530). involved the petition for naturalization of a woman against whom an order of deportation had been outstanding for more than 10 years prior to her naturalization. Nevertheless. the district court granted her petition for naturalization. A third case is that of United States v. Schwarz (82 Fed. Sup. 933). In this case the court refused to revoke an order admitting to citizenship an alien against whom a warrant of deportation was outstanding. which could not be executed. In two of these cases the court called attention to the fact that the Congress could. in its discretion. provide in the statute that a person subject to an order of deportation shall not be eligible for naturalization. That is what we propose to do by this amendment. The provisions of the bill. however. state that the findings of the Commissioner in terminating deportation proceedings or in suspending the deportation of an alien shall not be deemed binding in any way upon the naturalization court with respect to the consideration of whether the alien has established his eligibility for naturalization. Another provision of this segment of the bill which I should like to mention requires a personal field investigation of each applicant as a prerequisite to naturalization. Under the present practice the applicant needs only two character witnesses to testify on his behalf. The provisions of the bill would make it mandatory that the applicant be personally investigated. so that there would be available all the essential information. I may say that for too long we have been promiscuously bestowing the right of citizenship on persons concerning whom the administrative authorities and the courts have known too little. and as a result there are many who exercise the privilege of citizenship to mock the very Government which bestows it. Another provision of the bill requires that after the petition for naturalization has been filed in the office of the naturalization court. the petitioner shall not be permitted to withdraw his petition except with the Commissioners consent. This provision was inserted on the recommendation of officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. who stated that in some cases. especially those involving subversives. the petitioner would withdraw his petition after the service had put its evidence against him on record and when it became evident that on the record he could not become naturalized. He would then seek another forum in some other part of the country where he hoped his record would not be known. We come now to a very significant provision of the bill as it would affect the nationality law. Section 29 of S. 4037 amends section 335 of the Nationality Act of 1940. which sets out the oath required of all persons who acquire United States citizenship by naturalization. The present oath of allegiance was set out in the law for the first time in the 1940 act. Because of its importance. and because the interpretation of the oath has been changed and modified by a recent court decision.