San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-02
GOVERNMENT
WILL ENFORCE
/. HEAD-TAX LAW
immigration Service Sc
cures Trucks From War
Department.
WILL HAUL THEM OUT
Expect to Deport Many
Now That Otherwise
Would Be Left Alone.

Through the cooperation of the War
Department the immigration service
in the San Antonio district will soon
be able to deport large parties of
aliens through border points or to
transport them from one point to an
other Mt a minimum expense to the
government. This became known
Saturday by the announcement that
the War Department had consented
to the transfer OF. two ambulances
and two buses to the Department of
Labor for use in the San Antonio i'm
migration district.
Several weeks ago Captain w. NJ.
Hanson, director of immigration for
the San Antonio district, called the
attention of immigration officials at
Washington to the advantages that
would accrue to the service and to the
government if this district had a num-
Der of trucks for the transportation
of large parties Of aliens unprecedented
near the border or within the interior
of the district. The matter was taken
up with the War Department and
through the efforts to Col. W. A. Aus
tin, chief co-ordinatOr for the Eighth
Corps Area, the four vehicles which
have an aggregate carrying capacity
of SO or 30 persons will be given by
the army to the immigration service.
Although immigration officials and
inspectors hare carefully refrained
from committing themselves upon the
| subject, there is report from other
sources of information to the effect
| that the possession of these trucks will
mean that there will be stricter en-
| forcement of the headtaX laws. Should
| the headtax law be enforced in the
interior of Texas it would affect hun
dreds and possibly thousands of Mex
lean aliens who have entered this
country at point on the border other
than regular port of entry in order
that they might evade the payment Of
the SIS headtaX or the illiteracy test.
Catch More wet Feet"
1t is no secret that the immigration
service in the interior of the state
has been lax in the enforcement of
the headtax law for the reason that
the tremendous cost of transporting
aliens without headtax receipts from
the interior of Texas to the border for
deportation would be prohibitive and
would too rapidly exhaust the appro-
priation for this district.
Aliens who cross the Rio Grande
at points other than ports of entry are
known as wet feet" or "wet Mex
leans After they have reached the
interior of the state they have been
practically safe from apprehension by
the immigration officials. In aggra-
waited cases, however. the immigration
laws have been invoked for the pur-
pose of deportation. There are thou
sands of wet Mexicans" in Bcxar
county alone, it has been estimated.
The trucks will be distributed to
various points in this district. San
Antonio will probably be allotted one
truck and the others will probably be
sent to points near the border where
immigration forces have centered their
activities against the smuggling Of
aliens to this country and where eff
forts are made to keep "wct' Mex
leans from reaching the interior of
the state.
Heretofore, when the mounted pa
trolls in the border country have en-
countered parties of "wet' Mexians
ten or twelve miles or more from the
river, the immigration officers have
difficult problems to solve. The prob
lem is especially difficult when there
are large number of aliens in the
party, since they must either walk
back to immigration headquarters. or
when the distance is too great, trans
ported in jitneys at a great expense
to the government.
One Truck Will Be Here.
The trucks secured by the immigra-
ton service will be used to haul the
aliens back to the regular ports of
entry where immigration headquarters
are situated. One truck, it is reported,
will be used for the transportation
of aliens who have been brought to
San Antonio for deportation through
border points. Several months ago a
party of wet" Mexicans apprehended
in San Antonio, who agreed to volun-
tarily deport themselves at their own
expense, were carried to the border in
a truck furnished by private contract.
The aliens chose voluntary deportation
rather than be held by the immigration
service for weeks or even months pend
ing deportation proceedings.
Although immigration forces in the
interior of the state have made no
strenuous efforts TO apprehend wet"
Mexicans who have eluded the vigil
lance of the border guards, many Of
those who are Illegally in this coun-
try have been apprehended by the inn
migration officers while in the or
binary course of their duties. Unde-
sirable European aliens, many Of them
imbued with anarchistic ideas. who
have been filtering through the net
on the border. constitute greater
menace to the United States than the
ordinary wet" Mexicans. 1t. is against
these aliens from the Eastern Henri
sphere, that the limited personnel and
funds of the immigration service have
been directed.