The State Department today informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that, contrary to Vienna advices, nothing can be done to remove technical obstacles in the way of emigration of Jews from Austria to the United States unless the 1922 immigration law is changed.
The law provides that a prospective immigrant’s birthplace in 1922, the year the present law was enacted, is to be used as the birthplace for quota purposes.
A bill whose effect would be temporarily to set aside the immigration law was recently introduced by Representative Samuel Dickstein of New York, chairman of the House Immigration Committee. It provides for pooling of all unused immigration quotas for the period ending June 30, estimated at 115,000, for admission of all religious and political refugees from all countries. Hearings on the bill open April 20.
(A J.T.A. Vienna dispatch yesterday reported the bulk of Jews in Austria, since they were born outside of pre-Anschluss, post-war Austria, could not be included in the combined Austro-German immigration quota to the United States, totalling 27,400. Quoting informed observers, the dispatch said a way out of the dilemma existed inasmuch as the State Department could issue an administrative order under which the American immigration authorities would simply substitute a pre-war map of Europe for the present map in order to determine a prospective immigrant’s place of birth.)
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.
