Alien Registration Movement in America: Labour Federation in Michigan Endorses Bill: Native-born Soc

The Michigan Section of the American Federation of Labour meeting at Detroit has adopted a resolution endorsing the Alien Registration Law enacted by the State Legislature and signed by the Governor of the State, the operation of which is being held up pending the hearing of the objections raised by its opponents, whose case is to be heard by the U.S. Federal Court on June 29th.

In Jersey City the Society of Native-Born has decided to ask the Jersey State Legislature also to pass an Alien Registration Law similar to that which has been enacted in Michigan. This decision bears out the fears which have been expressed in many quarters in connection with the Michigan Law that other States are only waiting for the result of the hearing in the Federal Court in order to enact similar alien registration laws in their own States if the Federal Court should decide that the Law is constitutional.

If the Alien Registration Law should go into force, it would create hardship not only for unnaturalised citizens but also for naturalised citizens and for native-born Americans in the State, it is stated by people who have been making a close study of the provisions of the Michigan Alien Registration Law. Everything seems to point to the establishment of a passport system, they say, unless the opponents of the measure succeed in their efforts to block the Bill from becoming a law in the pending battle before the Federal Court.

According to the second edition of the bill, as adopted by the State Legislature and signed by the Governor, it is believed that naturalised citizens will also have to register, and it is now certain that hardships will be in store for hundreds of thousands of native-born Michiganers because birth records are incomplete, and only the records for the past few years are adequate. It is estimated that there are no birth records of close on a quarter of a million citizens born in Michigan.

FINGERPRINTS IMPRISONMENT AND DEPORTATION

Among the provisions of the Law are:

1. No person who entered the United States illegally may maintain a legal residence in the United States (Michigan); 2. The Commissioner of Public Safety may require photographs, fingerprints and other evidence of identification he deems necessary from applicants for certificates of legal residence in the State; 3. Employers must make detailed reports regarding any unnaturalised alien who is unable to exhibit a certificate of legal residence or who exhibits one which appears to have been issued to some one else; 4. Any person or firm employing or having business relationships with a person disqualified from legal residence is subject to fine from 50 dollars to 100 dollars or to imprisonment for 90 days, or both; 5. Peace officers must take into custody any unnaturalised alien who has no certificate of legal residence and hold him until his right of registration is established or until his case is disposed of in court; 6. Illegally-resident aliens may be imprisoned for not less than 90 days and must be fined an amount which “shall never be less than such sum as represents the cost of transportation of such alien to the nearest port of the country of origin, plus costs of prosecution not to exceed 100 dollars and costs; 7. If the alien is unable to pay he may be sentenced to a State or County road camp where he may work out the fine at the rate of 2 dollars per working day; 8. Finally, he must be turned over to the United States Bureau of Immigration, together with money to pay his fare to his native land, for deportation.