While no Government department would officially admit the new policy existed, it was learned today the immigration policy barring admission of refugees who have relatives remaining in Germany or other Nazi-occupied territories was adopted at the request of the Justice Department as an anti-espionage and anti-fifth column measure.
Justice Department representatives feared Gestapo agents in the U.S. could find a useful weapon to compel immigrants to betray this nation if the immigrants still had relatives if occupied Europe, it was said. That such coercion has been used in other countries there could be no doubt and the move was made as a preventive measure.
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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.
