A bill introduced by Representative Aswell of Louisiana provides that all alien residents of the country shall be required to register every year until they are naturalized and report every change of residence. All immigrants coming for permanent residence would be required to register at the port of entry.
The bill divides the nation into registration districts, each, so far as practicable, to contain a post office or branch postal station, and the alien is required to register within the district in which he lives or in the nearest convenient district. Registration in the main would be conducted by post offices and a fee of $10 would be paid by each adult alien for the first registration and $5 for each subsequent registration or renewal.
Should an alien permanently move from the district in which he registered he would be required to report that fact to the post office of his district and within two days after his arrival in the new district report to the post office of that district. In this way the Government would at all times have a complete record of the name, age, place of residence and personal description of every alien.
Certificates of identification would be issued to all aliens immediately on registration. The alien would be required to exhibit this certificate on demand of any agent of the Departments of Justice or Labor or of any police officer. Should an alien become naturalized or depart from the United States he would be required to surrender the certificate for cancellation.
The bill also imposes on hotel and boarding house keepers the duty of reporting to the proper authorities the names of all alien patrons and the time of their arrival. The names of all alien employes must likewise be reported.
The Secretary of Labor and the Postmaster General would have authority to make all regulations necessary for the enforcement of the act. Suitable penalties are provided and $500,000 is provided for administrative expenses. All fees collected under the act would go to the Treasury.
Representative Aswell went to Europe recently to study the immigration question. There are seven million aliens in the United States who have not taken out their first papers, according to him.
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