The fate of approximately 2,400 excess quota immigrants, a large proportion of whom are Jews who had been admitted prior to November and charged to subsequent monthly quotas, has been decided in their favor. Deportation was feared in the cases of most of these immigrants because of the ruling of Federal Judge Knox that it was illegal to admit immigrants arriving in excess of a given month’s quota and charge them to a subsequent month.
Following Judge Knox’s decision officers of the Department of Labor expressed the opinion they would be obliged to call upon these aliens to leave the country and deport them if they would not leave voluntarily. The immigration authorities, however, have decided that “for humanitarian reasons they will take no action whatever toward deportation in view of the tragic circumstances that might result if it were attempted after these aliens had been admitted and established their domicile here.
This attitude of the immigration authorities towards these excess quota immigrants became known following a conference between M. D. Rosenberg, Washington representative of the Bnai Brith and of the Board of Delegates of the American Hebrew Congregations and Commissioner General of Immigration Husband.
Mr. Rosenberg has succeeded the late Simon Wolf as representative off these two bodies in Washington. He was accompanied by Rabbi Abraham Simon, a member of the Board of Delegates and President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
As it was explained this action was taken by Mr. Rosenberg for the purpose of forestalling possible deportation action by the Department.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
