(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
A delegation representing the American Civil Liberties Union appeared before the House Immigration Committee yesterday, in protest against the Deportation and Registration Bills. Their protest was directed chiefly against the abandonment of the present five year limitation period, after which aliens may not be deported.
Chairman Johnson called attention to the fact that the Committee has already informally decided to retain the five year limitation period, and, moreover, not to deport aliens for illegal entry alone, if they entered prior to July 1, 1924, but the committee intends to recommend the deportation only of otherwise undesirable aliens. Chairman Johnson also stated that the registration bill has not yet been taken up.
Professor Ernst Freund of the Chicago University Law School objected to that feature of the bill, placing the burden of proof of an undeportable status upon the alien which, he stated, was opposed to all the fundamental principles of American legal procedure, which has always imposed the burden of proof upon the prosecuting authorities.
Representatives of the American Federation of Labor and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers submitted the protest of organized labor against any extension of the present law regarding deportation which, they contended, is adequate. They also objected to the whole principle of alien registration. Others who opposed the measure were: Allen S. Olmstead, a Philadelphia attorney who presented the witnesses, Francis Fisher Kane, former United States District Attorney of Philadelphia, Rev. W. L. Darby, of the Federal Council of Churches, Father W. T. Montivan of the National Catholic Welfare Board.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
