The Immigration Committee of the United States Senate has given its approval to the bill drafted by Congressman Samuel Dickstein, the new Chairman of the Immigration Committee of the House of Representatives, recommending the admission into the country outside the quota of aliens who are married to women who are American citizens.
This move towards the humanising of the American Immigration Quota Law of 1924, by enabling husbands and wives to live together, is the first fruit of the recent appointment to the Chairmanship of the Congressional Immigration Committee of Congressman Samuel Dickstein, one of the Jewish members of the House of Representatives, who is himself foreign-born, having been brought to America by his parents when he was two years of age.
The reunion of separated families would be in the best interests of the country, Congressman Dickstein stated recently in outlining his plans as Chairman of the House Immigration Committee. It is for this reason, he said, that I am proposing an immigration bill that will do away with those family tragedies now caused by the quota. My bill has the purpose of bringing together husbands and wives separated by the quota law. The existing immigration laws are too complicated, and bring dreadful chaos into the lives of hundreds of families.
A delegation of 35 naturalised American Jewish women, some of them carrying babies in their arms, appeared yesterday before the Immigration Committee of the House of Representatives, demanding that the Government should instruct the American Consuls abroad to issue visas to their alien husbands, most of whom are now in Poland, to enable them to join them in America, so that it should be possible for them to set up house together and live a proper family life.
Dramatic scenes occurred during the hearing when some of the women were overcome by emotion in describing their particular cases of hardship. It was brought out in the course of their evidence that the women who constituted the delegation have sufficient income to guarantee that their husbands will not become a public charge if they are admitted.
The Congressmen on the Immigration Committee, as well as Mr. Doak, the Minister for Immigration and Labour, who received the women separately, listened sympathetically to the appeals made by the women and promised to institute the necessary investigations with a view to overcoming the hardship presented by their cases.
The Conference of Rabbis in Poland held in Warsaw last week adopted unanimously a resolution proposed by the President, Rabbi Lipschitz, appealing to President Hoover and the American Government to issue visas outside the quota to enable husbands in Poland to join their wives in America.
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.
