The House, by a viva voce vote, yesterday passed and sent to the Senate the Disc bill for deportation of criminal aliens and protection of aliens from expulsion in “hardship cases.”
Fascists and Nazis was defeated after John J. O’Connor (Dem., N.Y.) had declared the proposal represented suppression of free speech. An amendment by Howard W. Smith (Dom., Va.) to strike out the section protection hardship cases was also rejected.
Asking that Congress “extend the hand of mercy to 8,000 aliens who have committed no crime,” Samuel Dickstein (Dom., N.Y.) asked for passage of the bill, which, he said, would result in deportation of 23,000 criminal aliens but protect 8,000 heads of families who were guiltless.
Martin Dies (Dom., Texas) announced that the bill had the support of the American Federation of Labor and the Committee for Industrial Organization.
Several representatives joined in attacking present immigration laws. Thomas F. Ford (Dem., Calif.) said the existing laws were “Farcical, cruel and a monstrosity.” Everett M. Dirkson (Rep., Illinois) said it was not the fault of aliens if they were not naturalized, that sometimes it was the fault of the American system. “We should take them by the hand,” he said.
William I. Sirovich (Dem., N.Y.) declared the bill humanized the present law. At the same time he assailed the Nazis for their attack on Cardinal Mundelein and asserted that “all Nazi theories of race, politics, history and religion are either outright falsifications of fact and truth or pure plagiarism.” He charged that “foreigners and aliens of Germany are tyrannizing and enslaving the German people.”
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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.
