Extent of Senate Unit’s Immigration Investigation Uncertain

It was uncertain here today whether the Senate subcommittee probing the operations of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 will develop a free-wheeling investigation of the Administration’s immigration program and the basic premises of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, as a number of Congressmen of both parties desire, in the wake of the ouster of Edward Corsi, State Department immigration adviser. Meanwhile, it was indicated that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Maxwell Rabb, White House aide, would be called to testify before the subcommittee about Mr. Corsi’s dismissal.

Testifying this week-end, Rep. Francis Walter, co-author of the McCarran-Walter Act and critic of Mr. Corsi, told the subcommittee that in screening refugees from East Germany the American immigration authorities were making use of Nazi documents. When he was asked by a member of the committee whether reliance could be placed in such documents, Rep. Walter insisted that “they’re infinitely better than none at all.” He also attacked Mr. Corsi for a pamphlet on immigration which the latter had written for publication by the B’nai B’rith.