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Congress Has over 100 Bills on Immigration; Fight Looms on Reynolds Measure

January 14, 1940
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Congress has before it at this session an unprecedented number of bills dealing with immigration, and Chairman Samuel Dickstein of the House Immigration Committee today scheduled an organization meeting of his committee for next Wednesday.

The latest bill to be thrust into the hopper came from Representative James Seccombe, Ohio Republican, who asked that the Government halt all immigration for duration of the European war.

Meanwhile, the Senate awaited a battle on the bill introduced by Senator Robert R. Reynolds, North Caroline Democrat, and approved by the Senate Immigration Committee after amendments had removed some of its harsher features. As amended, the Reynolds bill would kill quota immigration to this country for a period of five years.

It was learned today that Senator Robert F. Wagner, New York Democrat, will conduct a fight to the finish against passage of this measure, even though it includes a “sop” to the New York Senator in allowing 20,000 German refugee children to enter the country within the next two fiscal years. The Wagner refugee bill, now tied up in Senate red-tape, would allow entry of these children in addition to quota immigration.

The more than 100 bills now before the House committee run the gamut from an act introduced by Stephen Pace, Georgia Democrat, which would deny admittance the United States of all immigrants and would deport all aliens, to a bill by Emanuel Celler, New York Democrat, which would “assure to certain aliens asylum within the United States” by making visitors’ visas permanent under certain conditions.

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