The four Starnes bills to drastically restrict immigration and curb aliens’ activities were opposed as “very destructive” legislation before the House Immigration Committee today while the Rules Committee reported for special-rule consideration the Dies bill for deportation of criminal aliens and protection of aliens in hardship cases.
The Dies proposal provides discretionary powers for “extreme” hardship cases, often including American-born wives and children, when deportation is not to “the public advantage.”
Naturalization of all aliens who wish to become citizens was suggested by Mrs. Cecilia Razofsky Davidson, New York, associate director of the National Council of Jewish Women, the principal witness as the two-day hearings on the Starnes measures drew to a close.
Mrs. Davidson suggested naturalization of all aliens who wish to become citizens. She attacked the provision denying private relief to aliens, declaring this would put the Jews in the position of violating their pledge to aid their own people in America. When the Jews came here they promised to keep Jews from becoming dependents of American communities, and have succeeded, she asserted.
One of the four bills stipulates that the Secretary of Labor take into custody all aliens subsisting on public or private relief for six months.
Mrs. Davidson also voiced opposition to registration of aliens, as proposed by Rep. Starnes, criticizing the defense that European countries do the same. She said the punishment provided in the bill for failure to register change of address is “unbelievably cruel.”
Mrs. Davidson suggested a “moratorium” on present citizenship regulations so that aliens may become citizens with the least expense and “red tape.”
The Starnes bills were also opposed by Melvin Fagen, New York, representing the American Jewish Committee.
Yesterday, charges of widespread crime and dependency among aliens, were denied by several witnesses. A report of J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Burcau of Investigation, was cited to show the small number of criminal aliens in proportion to Americans.
Witnesses said that the Starnes Bills were inconsistent with American policy. Among those testifying were: Road Lewis, Foreign.
Language Service, New York; Morris P. Rosenberg, Washington B’nai Brith; Isidere Hirschfield, Washington Hebrew Immigration Society; Prof. Abraham Orlow, University of Pennsylvania; Dwight Morgan, American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born; Mortimer Riemer, secretary of the National Lawyers Guild, and Edward Burling, American Civil Liberties Union.
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.
