Commissioner of Immigration, Harry E. Hull, announced yesterday in a radio address that the United States for the first time in its history is able to state that it has immigration definitely under its control.
He pointed to the fact that in the last fiscal year the number of emigrants exceeded the number of immigrants. Of the 35,576 aliens admitted to the United States in the last fiscal year, 9,490 were relatives of American citizens.
“If we revert to the two years just before the World War, it is found that over 1,000,000 immigrants were admitted in each of those years,” he said. “In the fiscal year of 1931, 97,139 newcomers for permanent residence gained admission, compared with 241,700 in the 1930 fiscal year. The decrease in the last fiscal year was approximately 63 per cent from the prior one.”
The immediate problem of the bureau, the speaker said, is one of deportation to relieve the country of aliens who are found here in violation of the immigration law. In the last fiscal year more aliens were deported than ever before in the history of the country.
“The Department of Labor,” continued Mr. Hull, “was responsible in the fiscal year of 1932 for the deportation of 32,838 aliens. This includes the deportation of Communists, criminals and indigents. The greatest single cause for deportation is related to aliens who are found not to have been lawfully admitted to the country.”
Mr. Hull recommended a permanent act to provide “a scientific selective immigration policy” to afford the United States the opportunity to bring to its shores “the cream of the world’s civilization.”
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.
