Mr. Speaker. today I introduced a bill to amend section 103 (b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act so as to require that the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service be a member of the bar. Some of the background which prompted this bill should be noted. On June 14. 1940. pursuant to section 1 of Reorganization Plan V. the Immigration and Naturalization Service was transferred from the Secretary of Labor to the Attorney General. It was believed that proper enforcement of our immigration and naturalization laws could be achieved only by entrusting such administration to the highest legal officer of the land. Of course. the Attorney General was obliged to delegate most of these functions and for a number of years he had the assistance of Commissioners of Immigration who were lawyers and very capable ones. Lemuel B. Schofield served in this capacity followed by Earl Harrison. Ugo Carusi. and Argyle Mackey. Two Commissioners. however. in recent years have been laymen. Here In Congress we depend for immigration and nationality matters on subcommittees whose members are all lawyers. The House subcommittee. headed by that very capable attorney from Pennsylvania. Francis E. Walter. is composed only of lawyers. and so is the Senate subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization. Only lawyers are qualified to serve as members of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Except for social service agencies that minister to the needs of aliens unable to afford lawyers. only attorneys are permitted to practice before the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Laymen are being dropped and lawyers are being recruited to serve as deportation hearing officers. naturalization officials. and examining officers in the Immigration ServiceHouse Report No 1458. 84th Congress. 1st session. page 11. The Commissioner of the Immigration Service is charged with interpreting and enforcing a very complex statute of over 100 pages. He is required to know. understand and interpret this statute. Many of its provisions have a long legal history.
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