in the House, and Golder was named to the Banking and Currency Committee. Sabath, however, will probably have an opportunity of assisting friendly immigration legislation in the Rules Committee for this committee controls the consideration given to bills on the floor of the House.
In his speech, Congressman Dickstein severely criticized the policy heretofore pursued by the Immigration Committee of postponing action on friendly legislation until the very last minute which made it impossible to obtain enactment of such bills before the adjournment of each session of Congress. He made a strong plea for the amendment of the existing law as proposed by his bills to relieve some of the present hardships.
Congressman Dickstein was frequently interrupted by various members who showed an interest in his proposals but most of them seemed to be hostile, although Congressman Crisp seemed favorably inclined toward one bill regarding extending the period for legalizing the status of aliens who entered unlawfully.
The proposals put forward by Dickstein include the following: the exempting from the quota of parents and husbands of citizens who would be placed on an equal status with the wives of citizens, whereas now only husbands married to citizens prior to June 1, 1928 are exempt; legalizing the status of aliens entering unlawfully prior to July 1, 1924 instead of June 3, 1921; exempting from quota of refugee immigrants who obtained visas prior to July 1, 1924 but have been excluded because of an excess in the quotas; family visas to husband or wife enabling the entire family to emigrate immediately or within one year and thus prevent separation of families; allowing immigrants admitted temporarily to remain permanently, if during their stay they become eligible for permanent admission, such as by marriage to an American citizen. Now such aliens must go to Canada or Mexico to re-enter.
Congressman Dickstein pointed out that these bills would not conflict with the fundamental policy of immigration restriction but would simply humanize the law by removing some of its obvious defects. He also called attention to the fact that a number of his proposals were similar to those approved by Immigration Commissioner Hull.
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.
