Evening star., 1924-03-03

), 1t was proclaimed last week that
practically all immigration quotas
for the current fiscal year had been
exhausted and that no more immi-
grants could come in until next July.
Yet ship after ship arrives from Italy
and other Mediterranean countries,
laden with thousands of aliens. The
Department of Labor finds itself un-
able to bar them. because Of most
unexpected rulings OF federal courts.
These decisions cannot be overruled
by the Supreme Court sooner than
April-even assuming what no lay
man official has any power to fore
cast. that the district and circuit
courts are wrong in their decisions
which have SO upset the plans of i'm
migration restriction. .
!, The loophole in the law. as con-
strued by the federal courts of New
York, is not found in such parts of
the immigration law originally in
tended to apply to Europe, but in the
exemptions of the law applicable
solely to the. barred zone Of Asia, in
tended to restrain all Asiatics. eX-
cept certain special classes, such as
travellers, together with their families.
1t is claimed by immigration officials
that the court has lifted the exemp-
tions applying only to Asiatic bar
red zone and applied those exemptions
to European nationalities in such
way as to nullify most of the pro-
lection OF our quotas.
4 x !. =
There are three decisions which
have tended to let down the quota
bars. Only one has yet reached the
Supreme Court. The other two are
dependent upon the principles of this
one-the Gottlieb case, appealed from
a decision of Judge Learned Hand.
United States district Judge for the
southern district Of New York.
!, Solomon Gottlieb, native of Jeru-
salem. Palestine. has been in the
United States sixteen months. He is
rabbi of New York city synagogue
and has an income, exec eeding $4,000.
He has declared his intention to be-
come an American citizen.
In 1921 he sent to Jerusalem for
his wife and child and paid their
passage. They left Palestine upon
passports vised by an American con-
the immigration officials refused them
entry and ordered them deported, on
the ground that the quota was ex-
hausted. although 1t Is alleged that
others from the same country were
radmftted at the~same time.
Judge Mack of the United States
circuit court, = ruling upon habeas
corpus proceedings, held that the law
did not intend to separate wives from
their husbands, and that since Rabbi
/ iAh hl = has -
quota was not exhausted therefore
his wife and child were exempt from
quota Limitations. =,
The case was thereupon appealed to
the United States Supreme Court. In
the meantime. before. the Supreme
Of the circuit: and district courts are
the law, and thousands are Fastening
to reunions In America, through the
coming OF wives and children of
aliens already here
=. F9x + X
Another case which helps to let
down the bars is that of Markarian.
an Armenian. After being duly ad-
mitted in the quota Of Armenia, he
returned to Armenia and married,
and claimed admission Of his wife
when he, came back to the United
States, citing the Gottlieb case. He
won.
Steamship companies thereupon
broadcast the rulings abroad and
in the United States among natural
ICED aliens, in order to stimulate
their business. The result has been
that many thousands of immigrants
have gone back TO Europe in order to
escort their families across the ocean
aud through Ellis. Island before the
|Supreme Court can oyerrule the lower