J.D.B. News Letter

Various New Bills on Immigration Introduced in Congress; Johnson Insists on Further Restrictions (By Our Washington Correspondent)

Numerous bills proposing changes in the immigration law have been introduced in the House of Representatives since Congress entered into session Monday. Bills cannot be introduced in the Senate until that body formally organizes after disposition of the pending election contests.

Chairman Johnson, of the House Immigration Committee, has introduced a bill providing for the reduction of immigration quotas at the rate of ten percent per year for the five years commencing July 1, 1928, after which the annual quota of any nationality shall be one percent of the number of foreign born individuals of such nationality resident in the United States as determined by the 1890 census, provided, that during this five year period the minimum quota of any nationality shall be one hundred, and thereafter fifty. The bill provides further that during the fiscal years 1929 and 1930 quota allowances equalling one half of the ten percent reduction shall be set aside for unmartied children under twenty-one and the wives of aliens lawfully admitted to the United States and married prior to July 1, 1924. and that after July 1, 1928 the maximum quota for any country shall be 25,000. The effect of this bill would be to greatly decrease the total immigration to the United States. It is doubtful however, whether Congress will entertain Chairman Johnson’s proposal.

Congressman Blanton, of Texas, introduced a bill proposing complete suspension of immigration until January 1, 1935, except for accredited officials of foreign governments, actors, artists, lecturers, singers, nurses, ministers of any religious denomination, professors or students of colleges and seminaries, persons beionging to any recognized learned profession, travelers for pleasure or business, and the wives, parents and unmarried or widowed daughters, or any son not over eighteen, and providing that emergency farm and ranch labor may be imported for temporary periods. The bill also provides for registration of all aliens on the date that immigration is suspended, with deportation as a penalty on failure to do so, also for the creation of a Board of Americanization for the promotion of Americanizing education among aliens, the Board to make an annual report of conditions of the alien population. Blanton’s bill would also deport all aliens who withdrew their declaration of intention to become citizens in order to avoid the draft during the World War.

Congressman Selvig of Minnesota and Douglass of Massachusetts, both introduced bills for the repeal of the natioal origins plan.

Chairman Johnson also introduced two other bills; one regarding deportation and another with respect to naturalization of aliens. The deportation bill includes the following grounds for deporting aliens: (1) sentence to imprisonment for a term of one year or more for any offense committed within ten years after entry; (2) similar sentence and conviction thereafter of the same or any other offense; (3) prison sentences for any offenses together aggregating eighteen months; insanity, “constitutional psychopathic inferiority”, and chronic alcoholism; (4) becoming a public charge at any time within seven years after entry; (5) prostitution.

Congressman La Guardia introduced a bill providing for preference in the issuance of immigration visas to brothers and sisters of citizens, the unmarried children under twenty-one, brothers and sisters of aliens who have resided in the United States for at least three years, such preference not to exceed seventy-five per cent, of the annual quota for each nationality, and also for the completer exemption from the quota of unmarried children under twenty-one, husbands and parents of American citizens, or the unmarried children under eighteen years of age and the wife, husband, parents of an alien who has resided in the United States for three years and declared his intention to become a citizen.

In his message at the opening session of Congress, President Coolidge recommended: “Some further legislation to provide for reuniting families when either the husband or the wife is in this country.”