Evening star., 1952-05-25

upheld Senator McCarran's insistence
on retaining the mortgages.
5. Deportation
The Justice Departments powers
to deport aliens and naturalized citi-
zens always have been broad. The
McCarran bill, in rewording some Of
the old laws, added passages which
seemed to senatorial critics to in
crease those powers and to threaten
some aliens basic human rights.
Purple denunciations were traded
on the floor and in the press. But
when the two parties to the dispute
finally got together last week they
wound up being much closer in their
thinking than was at first apparent.
Senator McCarran's committee
characterized all amendments ac-
cepted as minor" although this
probably would be disputed by many.
Here are some of the settlements
reached:
a. The McCarran provision to de-
port aliens who became mental cases
within five years after arrival here
was hedged. At the suggestion of
Senators Lehman and Humphrey,
proof was required that the mental
deficiency had existed before the
alien came into the country. This
conforms to present law.
b. The McCarran bill would have
removed the five-year time limit on
the Attorney Generals power to de-
port an alien for going on relief. It
was agreed to restore the five-year
limit.
c. Critics also succeeded in con-
vincing Senator McCarran to remove
from his bill the provisions that eld-
erly parents and grandparents sent
for by their citizen children must
pass a Iteracy. test.
Some of the strict provisions on
controlling subversives or potential
Subversives, anathema to liberals"
when they were enacted in McCar-
rams Internal Security Act, are car
ried into the present bill. The
Humphrey-Lehman attempt to mod
ify these got nowhere. Here Is one
typical provision attacked to no avail:
The Attorney General can deport an
alien If he finds that the alien at
any time in the past "had a pur-
pose" to engage in activities prejudi-
cial to the public interest" The
liberal critics wanted to have the
courts decide such cases instead of
the Attorney General.
s. Exclusion
Next to the Justice Department,
United States consular officials
abroad are probably the most power
full figures in the administration of
our immigration program. They have
broad discretionary powers to accept
or reject aliens applications for visas.
This concentration of power Is
largely unavoidable but critics Of
the McCarran bill advocated setting
up an appeals board which would give
aliens who were turned away chance
to complain. The Senate rejected IT..
The most celebrated beef about the
exclusion provisions of the McCarran
bill was the one critics applied to
Cardinal MindSzenty. Under the bill,
aliens with two criminal convictions
against them-even by Fascist or
Communist governments-wou be
denied entry except if the offenses
were purely political" This excep-
tion was intended to cover trumped-
up charges such as those of which
Mindszenty was convicted. But besides
treason, the Cardinal was sentenced
for dealing illegally in foreign cur
rency and for "speculations." BY
some peoples definitions, these are
not purely political" crimes and
could be used to bar Cardinal Mind
szenty. Senator McCarran contends.
however, that definitions Of purely
political already established in leg
islative history would cover the Min
dszenty case.
The Senator told his colleagues In
dignantly that If the cardinal could
be excluded, then black is white"
Perspective
In historical perspective, the Nc.
Carran-Walter bill is undeniably a
step forward. AS indicated, the critics
Of the omnibus measure think 1t has
been a baby-step and should have
been stride.
Whether the present bill represents
q fair answer by the country 10 the
world population problem is ques-
tion that Is bound to be debated for
q long time to come.