DEPORTATION OF ALIEN SEAMAN

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1935

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10:20 a. m., Hon. Samuel Dickstein (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. The Chair will make a statement for the benefit of the committee. The committee

will take up for consideration in public hearing the bill introduced by Mr. Schulte, H. R. 5380, which is identical with the bill introduced by Mr. Dies, and without objection the committee will lay on the table the Dies bill, H. R. 2885, and confine consideration to H. R. 5380, introduced by Mr. Schulte, a member of this committee.

The subject matter of this bill is similar to that of a bill which was reported to the House from this committee on February 7, 1934, and which was passed by the House under suspension of the rules, which required two-thirds vote to pass the bill, on March 5, 1934. That bill did not reach the floor of the Senate from the Senate Committee on Immigration before adjournment of the Seventy-third Congress sine die.

The present bill now under consideration has two changes that may be important, and for the benefit of this committee I may state them as follows:

Section 7 of the bill, starting on page 4, applies to foreign vessels only, whereas the bill which passed the House during the last Congress applied the provisions of section 7 without the present restriction to only foreign vessels.

Also in section 2 and section 6 the words "domestic and foreign" are added in this bill. Except for those changes, the present bill seems to be identical with the bill that was passed by the House on March 5, 1934. Is that a fair statement, Mr. Schulte? Mr. SCHULTE. That is, Mr. Chairman.

(The bill under consideration is as follows:)

[H. R. 5380, 74th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To provide for the deportation of certain alien seamen, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Alien Seaman Act of 1935."

SEC. 2. Every alien employed on board of any vessel, domestic or foreign, arriving in the United States from any place outside thereof shall be examined in quarantine by an immigration inspector to determine whether or not he (1) is a bona fide seaman, and (2) is an alien of the class described in section 7 of this Act; and by a surgeon of the United States Public Health Service to determine (3) whether or not he is suffering with any of the disabilities or diseases specified in section 35 of the Immigration Act of 1917.

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SEC. 3. Unless such alien was shipped in a port in continental United States, then if it is found that such alien is not a bona fide seaman, he shall be regarded as an immigrant and immediately be ordered removed from the vessel to an immigration station; and the various provisions of this Act and of the immigration laws applicable to immigrants shall be enforced in his case. From a decision holding such alien not to be a bona fide seaman the alien shall be entitled to appeal to the Secretary of Labor, and on the question of his admissibility as an immigrant he shall be entitled to appeal to said Secretary, except where exclusion is based upon grounds nonappealable under the immigration laws. If found inadmissible, such alien shall be deported, as a passenger, on a vessel other than that by which brought, at the expense of the vessel by which brought, and the vessel by which brought shall not be granted clearance until such expenses are paid or their payment satisfactorily guaranteed. If an alien shall be shipped in a port of the United States and subsequently shall be returned to the United States by the same vessel, his right to remain in the United States shall not thereby be improved, extended, or altered.

SEC. 4. If it is found that such alien is subject to exclusion under section 7 of this Act, the inspector shall give immediate order to the master to remove such alien together with his effects and wages, if any, to an immigration station, and such alien shall then be deported in accordance with the provisions of said section 7. SEC. 5. If it is found that, although a bona fide seaman, such alien is afflicted with any of the disabilities or diseases specified in section 35 of the Immigration Act of 1917, disposition shall be made of his case in accordance with the provisions of the Act approved December 26, 1920, entitled "An Act to provide for the treatment in hospital of diseased alien seamen."

SEC. 6. All vessels, domestic or foreign, entering ports of the United States manned with crews the majority of which, exclusive of licensed officers, have been engaged and taken on at foreign ports shall, when departing from the United States ports, carry a crew of at least equal number, and any such vessel which fails to comply with this requirement shall be refused clearance: Provided, however, That such vessel shall not be required when departing to carry in the crew any person to fill the place made vacant by the death or hospitalization of any member of the incoming crew.

SEC. 7. No foreign vessel shall, unless such vessel is in distress, or coming in for fuel, be granted entry into a port of the United States if such vessel has as a member of her crew any alien who if he were applying for admission to the United States as an immigrant would be subject to exclusion under subdivision (c) of section 13 of the Immigration Act of 1924, except that any ship of the merchant marine of any sovereign nation may freely bring any exlcuded citizen or subject of such nation or any person not racially excluded who is a bona fide seaman as a member of the vessel's crew, exclusive, however, of any citizen, subject, or inhabitant of any colony, dependency, or mandate who is racially excluded from coming to the United States as an immigrant. Any alien seamen brought into a port of the United States in violation of this provision shall be excluded from admission or temporary landing and shall be deported, either to the place of shipment or to the country of his nativity, as a passenger, on a vessel other than that on which brought, at the expense of the vessel by which brought, and the vessel by which brought shall not be granted clearance until such expenses are paid or their payment satisfactorily guaranteed.

SEC. 8. That section 20 of an Act to remove certain burdens on the American merchant marine and encourage the American foreign carrying trade and for other purposes, adopted June 26, 1884, is hereby repealed, and that this Act shall take effect sixty days after it is passed.

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair will call on the American Federation of Labor, whose representative, Mr. Meadows, is present. I understand they want to speak in the order that the clerk has presented the list of witnesses to me.

STATEMENT OF S. P. MEADOWS, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. MEADOws. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee: My name is S. P. Meadows, legislative representative of the American Federation of Labor. I appreciate the fact that this subject matter

has been before Congress for some time, and I will be very brief with my statement. The subject matter is H. R. 5380, providing for the deportation of certain alien seamen. It is a meritorious bill, and the American Federation of Labor favors its adoption.

Previous testimony relating to this subject matter shows that as a result of present restrictive immigration laws there is a great desire for people to come to the United States illegally. It has been common practice for men to sign the crew list on vessels, and either pay for the privilege of so doing, or work their way over, and then when they reached the United Srates they would desert and get into the populace throughout this country. It has been stated that as many as 35,000 so-called "seamen" have come into the United States in 1 year by simply signing up as seamen at the foreign port of departure and then deserting after they had reached a United States port. If the vessels should be required to take away the same number of seamen that they brought here, there will be less desire to violate the law. If the law was changed ship captains would hesitate to sign up such men, knowing that invariably they desert upon reaching the United States.

It may be argued that this law would work a hardship on the steamship companies, but that is not true, for steamship companies carry sufficient seamen to provide for possible emergencies, so that they will have an adequate crew when they leave port. If a foreign vessel has a crew of any given number of seamen who are aliens, and one or more of them desert upon reaching a port of the United States, they have entered this country illegally and upon being apprehended should be deported.

It is not my intention to take up much of the time of this committee, for this subject matter has been before Congress for several years and previous testimony on the question is available for the use of the committee.

In February 1931 the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization was holding hearings on a similar bill and at that time Mr. Frank Morrison, secretary of the American Federation of Labor testifying before the above-named committee, read into the records a statement from the Washington Post to the effect that more than 500,000 immigrants have unlawfully entered the United States disguised as seamen. At that time it was mentioned that these are men who have been bootlegged into the country, and then as now the American Federation of Labor is asking that legislation be enacted that will close this door whereby alien seamen can enter the United States illegally.

At that time and prior to that time when this same subject matter was in committee, testimony had been given by witnesses that many of these so-called "alien seamen" were nothing more than immigrants in the strict sense and were paying for the privilege of signing up as seamen in order to reach a United States port, where they would immediately desert, because that was their intention in the first place, and that was the method whereby they intended to find residence in this country. It may be that some of that practice has stopped, that those who desire to enter here illegally have found it hard to buy their way in, and that sea captains have declined to be a party to violating the immigration laws of this country.

Be that as it may, it is a part of our duty as American citizens to protect those depending upon us for protection. That protection may

be given in more ways than one. We are not only asking that you close the door against so-called "alien seamen", because by that method they can enter the United States illegally, but we are also asking for that protection due us from a standpoint of health and happiness. If the practice of permitting alien seamen to enter this country illegally is to be measured from the standpoint of dollars only and we are not to give any consideration to the possibility of some of these aliens being afflicted with some serious disease, we have made very little progress in our standard of civilization. The United States Government spends thousands of dollars yearly watching all ports of entry, also border crossings, for all kinds of plant life that someone might be trying to bring into this country, so as to protect the growers against diseased cotton, wheat, and other farm products, also many kinds of plant life, because of small tropical insects or larva which would be destructive to much of our plant life. Are we as human beings of no more value than plant life? If the Government is willing to be so careful to guard against the possibility of tropical insects destroying our crops, the Government should be even more careful to guard the lives of her citizens against the possibility of diseased aliens entering this country.

Again let me say that the American Federation of Labor favors the enactment of this legislation.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Meadows, I am not seeking to refute anything you have said on the merits, but I want to say now that that statement of 500,000 is just like a blanket statement of 20,000,000 illegally in this country. There is a great wrong here some place, there is no question about that, but I do not like to have it go out that there is testimony by anyone to that effect. We haven't the figures. The best figures available are only about three and a half million people in the whole country illegally, and we have tried to check and double check, and no one has any more sympathy than I have for the solution of a problem of these fellows who skip ships.

Mr. MEADOWS. I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, is there anything else, any memorandum that you wish to file?

Mr. MEADOws. No. I can leave this statement.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is anything you wish to get in the record, why, I would be glad to take it.

Mr. MEADOWS. I have nothing else, Mr. Chairman. As I said, there has been so much testimony in the past given on this subject

The CHAIRMAN. Have you studied both this Schulte bill and the Dies bill? Have you given it careful study?

Mr. MEADOws. The Schulte bill is the one that we have before us. The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. MEADOWs. And I have not gone into the Dies bill.

The CHAIRMAN. No, I do not want you to go into the Dies bill because there is no use of our wasting time on the two bills, and the Dies bill has been tabled.

Mr. SCHULTE. Mr. Chairman, may I interrupt at this time to say that testimony given to this committee from reliable sources was to the effect that in the 20 years from 1907 to 1927, 221,987 seamen deserted at seaports, and up to date there is a total of around 381,290 alien seamen that deserted ships. So the figure of 500,000, I think, is quite reliable.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not want that to go into the record, and I will say this off the record

(Remarks off the record.)

Mr. FоCHT. Where did you get those figures?

Mr. MEADOWS. I stated, Mr. Congressman, that Mr. Morrison was giving testimony and reading a statement that was printed in the Washington Post.

Mr. FоCHT. Oh, you did not inquire where the Post might have gotten it?

Mr. MEADOws. And I think the committee records will show that the committee went into the thing quite thoroughly at that time. Mr. Morrison was presenting to this committee a statement in the Washington Post.

Mr. FOCHT. It would be pretty hard to follow these figures up. What were those figures that you stated now?

Mr. MEADOWS. I said that the Washington Post had made the statement there were 500,000.

Mr. FOCHT. When did they come in, the 500,000?

Mr. MEADOWs. They came in over a period of 10 years.

The CHAIRMAN. I have seen the Washington Post go wrong on a lot of things, too.

Mr. MEADOWs. The testimony at that time mentioned the figure of 500,000, or an average of 50,000 a year for a period of 10 years. The CHAIRMAN. That could not be, even if they deserted in batches. That is off the record, now.

Mr. SCHULTE. Yes, but you are making the statement.

The CHAIRMAN. I have made the statement after an examination and study of 3 or 4 months.

Mr. SCHULTE. You grant that they are really being smuggled into this country?

The CHAIRMAN. Oh, I agree with you.

Mr. SCHULTE. And if this can plug up some of these holes, let us go after it.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, understand; don't let you and I get heated up on something about which we are fundamentally agreed. I am simply trying to refute the statement that there are 20,000,000 illegally in this country, or that there are 500,000 deserted seamen. We haven't got so many seamen in the whole world.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Chairman, isn't that an honest difference? Mr. SCHULTE. I am going to agree with the chairman that there are not 500,000 deserted seamen. They come on board and they hire out as alien seamen, knowing that the ship company knows that. It was offered before this committee in testimony that money had been paid to get on as a seaman to come over to this country. The CHAIRMAN. Then you and I understand

Mr. SCHULTE (interposing). They make the statement, Mr. Chair

man.

The CHAIRMAN. That I am making the statement that the Post and all these other papers, including Blanton, have just gone hazy of something, or must have been something in their dream.

Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Chairman, where will we get responsible figures for authority as to how many have come in, or are they available?