Speech #890081930

That is from the Department of Labor. I call attention to the fact that not only did I personally insist that Public Law 414 be left unaffected and that the long arm of Federal regulation be not extended to cover the whole field of migrant agricultural labor. but I was Joined in that insistence by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture. Senator ELLENDER. of Louisiana. and the ranking minority member of the cornmittee. Senator AIKEN. of Vermont. and other Senators. as shown by the RECORD. Those who employed West Indian and Canadian supplemental workers did not want to have expensive Government control and regimentation substituted for their own responsibility in selecting their employees. paying the expenses involved. and assuring the repatriation of the foreign workers. Pursuant to the insistence of our committee. and after a full hearing on the proposed bill. it was passed in such form as to cover only the socalled bracero problem and only the importation of supplemental Mexican labor for that portion of the country which uses such labor. A section was included in the bill. as a committee amendment. making it completely clear that the general immigration law was affected in no way whatever. I quote that section 508 of Public Law 78 which we insisted upon and which reads as follows: SEC. 508. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as limiting the authority of the Attorney General. pursuant to the general immigration laws. to permit the importation of aliens of any nationality for agricultural employment as defined in section 507. or to permit any such alien who entered the United States legally to remain for the purpose of engaging in such agricultural employment under such conditions and for such time as he. the Attorney General. shall specify. Mr. President. it could not be made clearer as to the entire exclusion from the terms of the Bracero Act or any effect produced by that act upon the general immigration laws. or the bringing in of supplemental labor from the West Indies and Canada. While Japan and the Philippines were not in the picture at that time. the same logic would apply completely to the labor which has since been brought in from these areas and perhaps other friendly countries in the Pacific with which I am not familiar. The point was clearly made.