It amends section 214 of Public Law 414 by adding the following provision: (d) Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing the importation of any alien as a nonimmigrant under section 101 (a) (15) (H) for the purpose of employing the alien in the production of agricultural commodities and products. I want to make it perfectly clear that my bill will bar only the use of contract farm labor. the use of laborers temporarily imported into the United States to work on farms. It will have no effect whatsoever upon the bona fide immigration of workers from any country who wish to come to our land. live here permanently and become a part of our people. This legislation. Mr. Speaker. is in keeping with the policy concerning contract labor which has traditionally been a part of our Nations immigration laws. When in 1885. Congress first codified our immigration laws. the committee report Congress. page 5359: (Our bill) seeks to restrain and prohibit the immigration or importation of laborers who would have never seen our shores but for the inducements and allurements of men whose only object is to obtain labor at the lowest possible rate. regardless of the social and material wellbeing of our own citizens and regardless of the evil consequences which result to American laborers from such immigration. This class of immigrants care nothing about our Institutions. and in many instances never even heard of them. they are men whose passage is paid by the importers. they come here under contract to labor for a certain number of years. they are ignorant of our social condition. and that they may remain so. they are isolated and prevented from coming into contact with Americans. They * * * live upon the coarsest food and in hovels of a character before unknown to American workmen. The inevitable tendency of their presence among us is to degrade American labor. and to reduce it to the level of the imported pauper labor. The Immigration Act. which became law on February 26. 1885. specifically excluded contract labor. What is more. it invalidated all contracts made previous to the importation or immigration of such labor and provided strict penalties for violations. New immigration laws. approved in 1891. 1903. 1907. 1910. 1917. and 1924 all banned foreign contract labor. These strictures were. if anything. even more vigorous than those of 1885. All this changed in 1950. While working on what was to become Public Law 414. the subcommittee in the other body declared in its report: It is the belief of the subcommittee that contract labor does not present a serious immigration problem today. and that the contract exclusion clause may be removed. It is true that contract labor was no problem any more. in those Industries which used imported workers in the late 19th century. These industries. such as mining. garment. meat packing and railroads. were covered by social and labor legislation andmost importantcollective bargaining agreements. These factors make the use of contract labor absolutely impossible. However. in one major industry. which did not use contract labor in 1885 because it did not have the corporate structure it has today. the use of contract labor is still a problem. And that is agriculture. Congress clearly acted to remove this problem in its 196364 session when it refused to continue foreign farm labor importations.
Identified stereotypes
This class of immigrants care nothing about our Institutions, and in many instances never even heard of them.