Efforts to bring the liberalized Hobbs bill, designed to adjust administration of immigration laws to wartime conditions to the floor of the House for immediate action, was stymied in the Rules Committee today by opposition within the committee to the liberalization of the measure and the discretionary powers which would be vested in the Attorney General.
Committee opposition was led by Martin Dies of Texas. Four witnesses were heard in opposition to reporting the bill — Rep. Joe Starnes, Alabama, and J. L. Allen, Louisiana; Col. J. T. Taylor of the American Legion and John B. Trevor of the American coalition.
Committee Chairman Adolph Sabath said another effort to report out the measure would be made Tuesday with some Justice Department representatives probably appearing in support of the legislation. If the Rules Committee does not authorize immediate House consideration of the measure a vote on it will be held up another three months.
The Hobbs bill originally called for the confinement of deportable aliens where deportation orders could not be carried out because of wartime conditions.
On the recommendation of Attorney General Robert Jackson, the bill was amended to permit an independent board to judge which deportees should be confined as dangerous criminals and which should be released on parole. In addition, the measure was further amended to increase the discretionary authority of the Attorney General to waive deportation in order to avoid hardship cases and to grant haven to illegally-entered refugees of good character whose deportation would place them in danger because of their political beliefs, religion or race.
One of the important provisions of the amended bill is that the Attorney-General would have authority to grant a change of status from “non-immigrant” to “immigrant” for permanent residence to any alien admitted before Jan. 1, 1941, who applied for such change of status within two years after the effective date of the act and who would have fulfilled other requirements of existing laws, if there is “substantial reason to believe that he would be subject to political, racial or religious persecution were he to return to the country of his nativity, citizenship or last permanent residence.”
The opposition at the hearing centered largely on the belief that the Justice Department would not be stringent enough in its policies to suit the opponents of the measure.
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.
