Mexico Plans Law to Restrict or Entirely Exclude Jewish and Chinese Immigration

The Mexican Embassy here today admitted the truth of a report from Mexico City that the department of the interior of Mexico had drafted for submission to President Ortiz Rubio a law proposing new immigration restrictions which will operate chiefly against Jews and Chinese. The present Jewish population of Mexico is a little more than 16,000 with the bulk of the Jews concentrated in Mexico City, Vera Cruz and Tampico.

Inquiries made yesterday at the Mexican Embassy elicited the response that nothing was known of the proposed law but following inquiries made in Mexico City the truth of the report was established. Although the exact nature of the proposed restrictions has not been obtained in the information received from Mexico the Embassy is making arrangements to obtain a full text of the proposed law.

The draft of the law will be submitted to President Rubio for his study and consideration. At the last session of the Mexican Congress the president was granted extraordinary powers to promulgate such new immigration laws as he might in his discretion see fit and he will therefore have the right to put the draft of the law into immediate operation with changes or to reject it entirely.

While it is not yet definitely known what action the president will take on the law the Embassy indicated that it had reason to believe that he will probably approve of the restrictive provisions.

According to the draft of the law Mexico will have a quota system. The quota will divide immigrants into desirable and undesirable classes, allowing the free entry of those in the desirable class and limiting or excluding entirely those who are in the so-called undesirable class. Among the immigrants who are regarded as undesirables are the Jews and the Chinese and it is planned to virtually exclude both of these classes of immigrants.