Finger-printing the Alien

...Its aim is to protect the alien who wants the protection of the United States government, and I believe it will be helpful to aliens generally...

...The great mass of aliens are law-abiding citizens, and no espionage or annual muster is necessary to keep them so, opponents of registration say...

...On enrolling, the alien would be given certain educational advantages, and would be speeded along the path of naturalization...

...The issue came to a head with the hearing before the Senate Immigration Committee on the bill introduced by Senator Cole M. Blease, of South Carolina, providing for a voluntary registration of aliens...

...The immigrant is to pay $3.00 for his certificate, which will carry a photograph and the following information: full name under which admitted...

...If there are dangerous aliens in the United States, they can be dealt with in some other way than by an annual round-up...

...John B. Trevor, Read Lewis, Nathan D. Perlman, and Amos Pinchot, were some of the men who appeared before the Committee as representatives of various organizations opposed to registration...

...But a careful analysis of the ultimate result reveals the grave danger of such a movement...

...The platform of 1920 committed the Republican party to the principle of the registration of aliens...

...The bill merely provides that an alien who has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence, and who has continued to reside here, shall, upon his voluntary application to the commissioner-general of immigration, be furnished with a certificate made from the official record of such admission...

...Secretary of Labor Davis, once an immigrant boy himself, gave the Shortridge bill his most unqualified support...

...If any one of the 531 senators and representative thought for one moment that this would develop into an espionage system, or savor of the autocratic mon-archistic regime of the broken European governments, the measure would never be considered for a moment, and I for one should use every vestige of power which I possess to defeat such a move if it were made...

...If it fails of enactment, on the other hand, the day of compulsory registration will be indefinitely postponed.e indefinitely postponed...

...No alien, it may be noted, is compelled to apply for the certificate, and those who do not apply face no penalties under the law...

...Representative Aswell of Louisiana sponsored another registration bill, a bit more drastic...

...Failure to apply would be regarded as evidence that the alien in question had something in his record which he wished to conceal...

...After the Committee had reported it to the floor, the Senate ordered the Blease bill reported back to the Committee for further hearings...

...This measure calls for compulsory registration, annually, and the President would have the authority, in time of emergency, to require all aliens registered to report to the federal authorities at such times and places as he might direct...

...Immigration restriction was becoming a real political issue, and a fear and distrust of the alien went hand in hand with the demand that a curb be placed upon the influx of the foreign-born...

...It is, of course, not a compulsory registration bill...

...In answering certain objections that had been made against the bill he said: Some objection has been raised on the ground that the enrolment provision would constitute a system of espionage similar to that which has been practised by the militaristic governments of some of the countries of Europe...

...port at which admitted...

...It was not an espionage measure, he insisted...

...Opposition which had developed from outside groups, it is understood, prompted the Senate to take this rather unusual procedure...

...True, as an incident to the working of the law, those aliens of anarchistic blood and selfish motives for aggrandizement would be discovered...

...The Amer-can people were just emerging from hysteria and other emotional by-products of the war...

...Its supporters in and out of administration circles claim that the Blease bill is designed to help the aliens...

...As the smoke of this conflict disappeared in the clouds, legislators at the Capitol turned their attention to other phases of the immigration problem, notably toward restrictive immigration proposals...

...We would prevent the extortion of millions of dollars by people now engaged in making out and advising on citizenship matters for aliens unable to understand the process...

...The present wave of unemployment, and the economic depression which was an aftermath of the Stock Exchange crash, have contributed one of these causes, and the recrudescence of fears of Communism and Red activity constitute the other...

...The many millions of aliens in the United States prior to 1928 have in their possession no such certificates...

...But this legislation is, I am sure, an honest effort on the part of the government to cooperate with every private organization and individual in raising the standard of citizenship, and making it easier to attain that standard and acquire the privilege...

...Obviously, however, if the bill should become law, a certain degree of suspicion would be directed against non-holders of the certificate...

...In the House, a bill much more drastic was introduced, and the storm of opposition which developed over its alleged "espionage" features sounded the knell at that session of all registration measures, including the Shortridge bill...

...Its purpose cannot be to encourage citizenship and assimilation, because the very first thing this law would do would be to single out the alien and increase prejudice against him...

...In his 1925 report, he outlined in detail the plan he had in mind, and the machinery for carrying it out...

...The real danger, however, lies in the fact that it is the first step in the direction of national registration, because how can anyone determine, especially in a cosmopolitan country such as ours, whether or not a given individual is or is not an alien...

...Senator Blease declares: I do not see how any honest man could object to my bill...

...It was put in these words: "To facilitate government supervision all aliens should be required to register annually until they become naturalized...

...name of steamship, if any, and date of admission...

...The drive against the Reds has led certain groups to demand a round-up of aliens...

...The hearing on this bill before the Senate Committee clearly defined the issue between the two groups...

...Discussion of the Blease bill has thus brought to the fore the issue of compulsory registration of aliens to which the Republican party committed itself in 1920...

...Under his plan, undesirable or dangerous aliens would be deported...

...color of eyes...

...If the Blease bill becomes law, its opponents argue, it will be easier later to place on the statute books a compulsory enrolment law...

...What the opposing groups object to, however, is not the Blease bill itself, but the fact that it may well prove a forerunner of a compulsory registration bill that will compel every alien to report once a year, or oftener, and which will lead to another bureaucracy of espionage and counter-espionage...

...The alien, he said, should be enrolled following his arrival in the United States, and Congress should make provision for an annual census of the unnaturalized, and a system of education in Americanism, under which each alien would have an opportunity to learn the English language and something, as well, of American history, traditions, institutions and ideals...

...Davis admitted that his plan would also achieve certain other desiderata, from the government's viewpoint, namely reveal the presence of the alien here in violation of the law, or the alien who seeks "by words or acts to induce the violent overturn of our institutions...

...Mandatory registration would create, it is argued, a new army of lawbreakers, for this law, like the national prohibition act, could never be made 100 percent effective, and if any attempts at all were made to enforce it, the organization of another army of enforcing officers would be necessary...

...Of recent months, however, there has been a marked revival of interest...

...And in his 1927 report, he said: I wish to make it plain that my recommendation does not contemplate a system of police registration, fingerprinting and the like, but a means of acquiring in the Bureau of Naturalization for use in connection with legalizing prior admissions, an official roster of aliens under the protection of our flag...

...Failure to register for two consecutive years would render the offender liable to deportation...

...They provide for the annual registration and enrolment of aliens...

...Davis returned to the subject in his reports for the two following years...

...So far, the comparatively innocuous Blease bill has occupied the centre of attention...

...nationality...

...Of course this would be commendable...

...The Blease bill, is a mere incident in a struggle between two groups, and two schools of thought...

...country of birth...

...Davis, however, continued to champion the proposal, and urged Congress, in a number of his annual reports, to place an enrolment bill on the statute books...

...Employers during the current period of economic depression, it is said, have thrown aliens out of work, or have denied them employment, because they were unnaturalized, and because they could offer no papers from the federal authorities to show that they are not undesirable citizens and are lawfully here...

...While recommending the enrolment primarily as a means "of helping the alien to help himself to the best that America could afford," Mr...

...Underneath the surface of this law I see another attempt to place our personal liberties under federal supervision...

...Several other bills of interest have been introduced in Congress during the present session, though none have as yet been given a hearing...

...On the other side is the group which, in supporting this particular measure, together with other bills to tighten up the restriction on immigration, hopes to pave the way for later enrolment and a thoroughgoing check on all the unnaturalized foreign-born in our population...

...What they seek according to spokesmen for the Blease bill, is permission to obtain from the government a certificate of respectability equivalent to that which every newcomer now receives...

...An occasional registration or enrolment bill was introduced, but the introduction caused scarcely a ripple in the legislative waters...

...On July 1, 1928, the Department of Labor began to issue certificates to incoming aliens...

...The indefatigable Mr...

...Congressional interest in registration waned perceptibly after the failure of the Shortridge bill...

...These, in effect, were certificates of "respectability," equivalent to a card which a man receives from a fraternal organization as evidence that he is a member in good standing...

...In 1926 he took occasion to emphasize that he had in mind neither police registration nor regulation...

...The provisions of the new legislation are not to spy upon the alien in the United States on legitimate business...

...In 1921, Senator Shortridge, of California, introduced a bill providing for the compulsory enrolment of aliens as a part of a broader-citizenship program...

...Representative Cable of Ohio has sponsored two of these...

...Certain penalties are prescribed for failure to comply with the registration and other provisions of the bill...

...The line between the two groups is sharp and clearly drawn, and compulsory registration, rather than the innocuous Blease Bill, was the real issue under debate at this time...

...date of birth...

...It is intended to aid him in his search for the better things in life, to give him an opportunity to understand us, and give us an opportunity to understand him, so that we may be able to live together with better understanding of each other's trials and ambitions, and to make for all a better and safer place to reside...

...Two main causes lie behind this...

...The alien groups themselves, it is contended, are solidly behind the plan, in order that they may get a protection which hitherto has been denied them, except those who have entered the country since 1928, and who therefore have a certificate issued after they had passed the immigration officers...

...While my sentiments are strongly against illegal alien smuggling, I cannot vote for a proposal that will bring to us a system employed formerly by the Prussian and the Russian autocracies...

...Both groups seem to realize that this is the real question involved...

...On the one hand are those who see in the bill of the South Carolina Senator the opening wedge in a drive for the compulsory registering and tagging of the alien members of the American household...

...It is obvious that in order properly to enforce such a law everyone will have to carry with him a passport containing his photograph and showing that he has a right to live in this country...

...The following statement by Senator David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, ably summarizes this point of view: Ostensibly it might appear that an alien registration law would minimize illegal alien smuggling...

...To counterbalance any possible benefit that might accrue we must remind ourselves that such a law would set up a gigantic system of espionage that would not only subject the alien to intimidation but create another form of blackmail and extortion...

...AFTER a decade of rather academic discussion by political leaders and others, the proposal for a registration of aliens has suddenly become a live issue at the Capitol...

...Spokesmen for the bill, including W. W. Husband, Assistant Secretary of Labor, cited the benefits which voluntary registration would confer upon aliens, by giving them a document to show that they are under the protection of this government...

...The enrolment, or registration, however, is to be voluntary, and by registering annually with the commissioner of naturalization, the alien receives certain minor benefits, such as the right to petition for citizenship without any previous declaration of intention...