Speech #830135904

It is a short statement. The American Legion is proud of its record in the field of Americanism for more than a third of a century. I am personally privileged in having the opportunity to come before your committee for the second time in support of adequate funds for the Justice Department so that the Immigration and Naturalization Service may be given the tools with which it can discharge its responsibilities under the law. The American Legion is grateful to your committee for permitting us to discuss this matter with you at this time. When I testified before your committee last year (p. 238 of the hearings before your committee) I told you that the information leading up to the development of my testimony came from within our organization and not from an agency of the Federal Government. I wish to reiterate that statement In connection with the testimony I offer here today. It is interesting to look back a year. to page 226 of the hearings on the Department of Justice. and to note there was some conflict between the assurances of the Attorney General that funds were adequate. and our apprehension that additional funds would be needed to properly carry out the program laid down for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It is also interesting to note that scarcely 7 weeks after the beginning of the 1954 fiscal year the Attorney General. following a personal inspection of the United StatesMexican border. according to the Washington Post of August 19. 1953. was much concerned over the increase in the number of people illegally crossing over from Mexico into the United States. According to the Washington Post the Attorney General said the problem was still in an "incipient" stage. Of course. we realize that you gentlemen of the Congress have to rely on the facts as they are given to you by responsible authorities in Government and that your actions are guided by them. We are not critical of this committee for having failed to appropriate the funds but we do criticize the Attorney Generals office for having failed to ask you for the amount necessary to appreciably strengthen the Immigration Services weak position along our Southwest border. More recently. the magazine section of the New York Times of January 31. 1954. had a very interesting article on the wetback situation entitled. "Two Every Minute Across the Border." which was written by Mr. Gladwin Hill. of the Los AngelesNew York Times Bureau. I do not include the article because of its volume but wish to quote from it for the purpose of emphasizing several points that will follow: "Most wetbacks have to pause at least briefly In the valley to work and get a little money before pushing northward. One objective of the patrol is to nail them before they can get socialsecurity cards. The law does not deny cards even to illegal aliens and. once In hand. they become quasipassports. "The catandmouse game would be comic if it were not for its evil ramifications. Because of their numbers. the wetbacks make a mockery of border supervision. transforming the line into a gateway through which foreigners of any sort can infiltrate. The wetbacks bring all kinds of contraband with them. from drugs and parrots to venereal disease. Their direct social cost in Imperial County alone. counting everything from jailing to hospitalization for tuberculosis. has been reckoned at several hundred thousand dollars a year." We are not here as fiscal or immigration experts. We will not say how much money is needed for the jobthat is up to the Attorney Generalbut it strikes us as being peculiar that 1955 fund requests are even less than 1954 (p. 818. Federal Budget).