The expected renewed attack on immigration in Congress was launched yesterday both by President Hoover in his message at the opening of the last session of the present Congress and by the introduction of Senator David A. Reed’s bill to suspend immigration for two years from all countries on this hemisphere and from Europe, and the offering of another measure by Representative Cable, to exclude all immigration of laborers, until the Secretary of Labor decides they are needed.
In his message to Congress President Hoover said, “there is need for a revision of our immigration laws upon a more limited and more selective basis flexible to the needs of the country. Under conditions of current employment it is obvious that persons coming to the United States to seek work would likely become either direct or indirect public charges.
“As a temporary measure, the offices issuing visas to immigrants have been, in pursuance of the law, instructed to refuse visas to applicants likely to fall into this class. As a result the visas issued have decreased from an average of about 24,000 per month, prior to the restriction, to a rate of about 7,000 during the last month. These are largely preferred persons under the law.
“The whole subject requires exhaustive reconsideration,” the President declared. Urging the strengthening of the deportation laws “to more fully rid ourselves of criminal aliens,” President Hoover said, “furthermore, thousands of persons have entered the country in violation of the immigration laws. Every method of their entry indicates their objectionable character and law-abiding foreign-born residents suffer in consequence. I recommend that Congress provide methods of strengthening the government to correct this abuse.”
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.
