Evening star., 1932-07-24

deportation every effort is made to safe
guard individual rights 50 that no one
will be dealt with unjustly. Hearings
and reviews are given by the Depart
ment of Labor. and in addition the courts
are available to protect the aliens. The
steadfast policy has been to protect our
own citizens, but at the same time to
adhere to the principle of being humane
In enforcing the laws. The Govern.
naent,s course was thus defined by Presi-
dent Hoover in message to Congress:
THE deportation laws should be
strengthened Aliens lawfully in the
country should be protected by the
issuance of certificate of residence"
\A/HAT is meant can be illustrated by
the facts of one of many similar
cases. A boy from Southern Europe
landed as seaman in New York in 1920.
He was not eligible to come in as an i'm
migrant, and, knowing that, he simply
deserted the ship and slid" into the
country, finally settling in a Middle
Western city. He made living at first
by selling fruit from a pushcart- Later
he was able to establish a store, and
prospered He married and had several
children. ALI went well until one day
fellow countryman, who also had been
a seaman on the same ship, happened
into the store and recognized the pro-
prietor as fellow Shipmate-and de-
Serter. This second man was one of the
type who live by their wits rather than
by their work. He promptly began
making loans" from the merchant,
under yelled threats of disclosure to i'm
migration authorities. The merchant
knew he had entered the country
illegally; he was afraid of the deporta-
ton law and afraid even to consult a
lawyer for help. But finally, when the
demands of the racketeer became so
frequent and heavy that the solvency of
his business was threatened, the mer-
chant did consult an attorney The re-
suit was that the merchant was properly
registered under the law-and the
blackmailer was depOrted.
This happy attainment was made pos
sible by the enactment in 1929 of law
authorizing the creation of a record of
registry for aliens who entered the
country before June 3, 1921 Such reg
istration clears the way for naturaliza-
tion, so that many thousands of foreign
born may become American citizens even
though their entry into the country was
illegal or the record of legal entry has
been lost or kept defectively OF course
one of the requisites to such registration
is that the alien applying for it shall
show good character and a record free
of convictions for any serious offense.
Tens of thousands of foreign-bor
residents have already registered; many
of them are old people with grand
children who have urged them to take
the steps leading to naturalization so
that the descendants might proudly say:
I'm an American citizen, and so were
my grandfather and grandmother"
AS the law is now, there are thousands
of foreign-born men and women in the
country who arrived and made unau-
thorized entry after June g. 1921, but be-
fore July 1, 1924. If they are law abiding
they are not, generally speaking, sub
ject to deportation. On the other hand,
they cannot become American citizens
because they cannot prove legal entry.
They therefore are what might be termed
"undigested mass" There is pending
in Congress bill which if enacted would
permit us to extend the benefits of
registration to this class and thus enable
the Nation to aSSimilate fully these
people, who will be here permanently in
any event.
That is an evidence of the desire not
to be Oppressive" in our handling of
the alien situation. Another fact which
illuminateS the whole spirit of our deal
ing with aliens is that in many cases
Il aaf Of tatia