Commissioner Hull for Easing Immigration Law

Easing of certain features of the quota immigration law, especially as they apply to dependents of immigrants, will be recommended to the next Congress, according to Harry E. Hull. Commissioner General of Immigration.

He said he would urge that the wife of an immigrant, who is here legally under a quota, be allowed to join her husband. This is banned under the present law. The Commissioner will also recommend that all children, up to 21 years of age, instead of 18 years as the limit is now, be permitted to join their parents in this country if the parents are legal residents.

Another step will be a request that dependent parents of legal residents be allowed to join their children who have come to the United States. Commissioner Hull said that in the past, hardships had been worked by certain interpretaions of the laws, but these, he said, had almost always been the fault of the individuals themselves. They know the laws, he said, and yet they leave their wives and families to come here on the gamble that they will be able to slip in under the next monthly quota. This sometimes causes hardship when the families find the quota filled ahead of their arrival.

Commissioner Hull said that there were between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 aliens illegally in this country and eligible for deportation if they could be apprehended. He added, however, his belief that hundreds of the illegal entrants have become substantial members of the communities in which they settled, with some holding public office.

One of his recommendations, when he goes before Congress for authority permitting the Bureau of Immigration to exercise wider latitude, will be legislation to legalize the presence of responsible aliens who came here prior to the quota laws of 1921.

Plans have been completed for an addition to the Lucien Moss Home of the Jewish Hospital Philadelphia, Pa Edwin H. Silverman and Abraham Levy are the architects. It is estimated that the proposed work will cost $100,000.