American consuls in European countries will soon hold a series of conferences with regard to stricter enforcement of the immigration laws, according to a statement issued by the State Department. These conferences are a result of the policy approved by President Hoover, according to which immigrants who may not be able to support themselves in the present unemployment crisis are to be barred from the country.
The first conference of the consuls will take place in London on Sept. 22 and 23. The second conference will take place on Sept. 26 and 27 in Stuttgart, Germany, and will be attended by consuls from Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Sweden, Hungary, Italy and Jugo-Slavia. The third conference will take place Oct. 1 and 2 in Warsaw with consuls from Poland, Finland and Latvia participating. Wilbur J. Carr, Assistant Secretary of State, and A. Dana Hodgson. Chief of the Visa Department, will participate in the European conferences. Conferences of American consuls in Canada will also take place on Sept. 15 in Winnipeg and during the beginning of October in Vancouver.
The consuls will be asked to enforce more strictly than heretofore that clause in the immigration law which forbids the entry of those immigrants who may become a burden upon the community. Consuls and immigration officials have always enforced this clause. In the future, however, they will demand that immigrants not only possess more money, but that they have prospects of getting employment in America. According to President Hoover’s order, consuls in the future will have more power to judge whether an immigrant may become a burden upon the community and to refuse immigrants visas if they think this to be the case. Such rejected immigrants will not, however, lose their place in the quota and will receive their visas when the unemployment situation in the United States will again become normal.
NON-QUOTA IMMIGRANTS INCLUDED
Consuls will be able to enforce the new restrictions even against non-quota immigrants, such as wives and minor children of American citizens. It is not expected, however, that the new policy will hit the immigrant relatives of American citizens very hard, since these will always be in a postion to bring sufficient proof that they will not become a burden upon the community and will be able to put up bonds if necessary.
The coming conference of American consuls will probably decide what are to be the financial demands upon prospective immigrants to this country. Even if consuls abroad will have granted them visas, prospective immigrants will also be exposed to the possibility of being barred by immigration inspectors in American ports, if the latter will be convinced that a European consul had made an error in the granting of a visa.
The New York office of the HIAS has sent telegraphic instructions to the HIAS offices in various European countries to see to it that, because of the new immigration restrictions which have been ordered by President Hoover, American consuls should not put such difficulties in the way of prospective immigrants as are not in accordance with the law. This was revealed yesterday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by Isaac Assofsky, general manager of the HIAS, who stated that HIAS offices abroad have been asked to report any cases of discrimination to the American HIAS, which will take up these cases with the State Department in Washington.
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.
