Immigration Commissioner James L. Houghteling tonight opposed measures to liberalize entry restrictions for political refugees which would give the commissioner the duty of determining who were refugees.
Addressing a banquet of the National Council of Jewish Women’s convention, Mr. Houghteing urged the Senate to pass the Dies Bill., which would relax restrictions on illegal immigrant with close relatives in this country.
Another speaker was Assistant Secretary of State George S. Messersmith, who warned that unless Secretary Hull’s trade agreements program received adequate support at home and abroad, “we may face even worse conditions through a general economic breakdown than those we are now facing through military action and the disregard of established rights and sovereignty in certain parts of the world.”
Mr. Houghteling, speaking on the problem of political refugees, stated:
“The problem of the political refugee is not yet technically a problem of the Immigration Service, since the status of a political refugee as such has no practical recognition in our present immigration laws. Occasional arrivals of political refugees on our shores represe therefore, a series of isolated problems to be met on their merits.
“There is at this moment considerable agitation for the passage of a bill to offer asylum in this country to political refugees. Most of the drafts of such bills which I have seen left in the hands of the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization the discretion of determining what aliens are political refugees, what nations are persecuting their citizens for political or religious reasons, and other difficult questions which no commissioner, no matter how wise or courageous, will welcome.
“I may, before long, be competing with the Secretary of State for control of our foreign relations, I promulgating unpalatable truths and he following to repair the damage. May the day never arrive when I find myself in that position.”
Mr. Houghteling expressed sympathy with the eagerness of aliens to enter the United States, but said “I regard it as my duty to exercise strictness and to discourage illegal entry in every way possible.”
The convention last night adopted a resolution pledging the Council’s 200 sections throughout the country to raise $250,000 over a three-year period for aid to the German-Jewish children’s aid committee.
A round table discussion was held during the afternoon on the subject, “Is There a Jewish Predilection for Radicalism?” which was held in the form of a demonstration study group Rabbi Herman Hailperin, Professor of Jewish History at Duquesne University, introduced the question.
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