Five immigration bills were introduced yesterday by Congressman Dickstein of New York at the opening of the regular session of the Seventy-first Congress. Two of the most important of these bills provide respectively for family visas, and an extension of the legalization of residence for aliens who entered the country unlawfully to July 1, 1924.
At present legalization and the accompanying right to become an American citizen is available only to those aliens who entered unlawfully prior to June 3. 1921. The family visa bill provides that whenever a husband or a wife is issued an immigration visa, such visa shall include not only the applicant but also the applicant’s entire family. The applicant would proceed to America at once but his family would be obliged to follow within a year, otherwise the visa would be invalid. This bill aims to prevent a separation of families.
The three remaining bills offered by Congressman Dickstein would grant non-quota status to husband, wife and parents of American citizens, repeal that provision of the deportation law which prohibits the reentry of all deported aliens and substituting in place of it a provision enabling deportees to reenter within one year after deportation or before at the discretion of the Secretary of Labor, and non-quota status for immigrant refugees given visas prior to July 1, 1924 but denied admission because of exhausted quotas.
Mr. Dickstein declared that the foregoing bills represent the minimum immigration relief which should be adopted by Congress at this session, and that he will press for an early hearing by the Immigration Committee on these bills.
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