Speech #840144741

I am told. calls for the recruitment of some 8.000 volunteer patrol inspectors. the purchase of jeeps. airplanes. trucks. arms. setting up of demolition squads to blow up bridges and roads leading into the country from Canada. and contemplates persuasion to participate in the plan of the State highway patrols and National Guard. How many armies are we supporting? It never has been the function of the Immigration Service to act as an auxiliary of our Armed Forces. My attempts to obtain more information about plan A have met with the customary rebuffby the convenient iron curtain which the present administration has lowered between Congress and the executive branch of the Governmentthat this is classified information. The militarizing of the Immigration Service suggests a most fundamental problem. It may be an indication that by administrative fiat. and without congressional authority. the functions of the Immigration Service are being diverted from the purposes intended and specified by Congress. If such is the case. Congress is entitled to know about it. and. to date. General Swing has refused to so inform the members of my subcommittee. If it is not the case. then the military talents of two retired generals are of no special value to the Immigration Service. While responsibility for the execution of the immigration and naturalization laws may entail some tasks which res6mble police duties. by no stretch of the imagination do they encompass military duties. And while I do not for one moment wish to deprecate men who have dedicated their lives to the military service. I say to my colleagues that the last place in the world for retired military officers is the Immigration and Naturalization Service. On four different occasions the House has rejected this legislation. To enact these bills would condone the evasion and flouting of Federal laws by the Service. I think we should remind the President that in this democracy. although retired generals may be of real value to companies engaged in Government procurement. they have no place in the Immigration Service. I ask your support in my opposition to these bills.