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71ST CONGRESS) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session

AMENDING CABLE ACT TO PERMIT THE WIFE OF A NATIVE-BORN AMERICAN CITIZEN AND WORLD WAR VETERAN TO JOIN HER HUSBAND IN THE UNITED STATES

MAY 28, 1930.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. LEAVITT, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 3691]

The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3691) to amend an act entitled "An act relative to naturalization and citizenship of married women," approved September 22, 1922, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass without amendment.

While this measure is an amendment of the Cable Act relative to the naturalization and citizenship of married women, it is in itself restrictive in character in that it prescribes such limitations to its application that extremely few cases could possibly be brought under its provisions.

In the first place, the act will not apply to any cases arising from a marriage consummated after the enactment of this law.

In the second place, it will not apply unless the husband is a nativeborn American citizen who is also an honorably discharged soldier, sailor, or marine of the United States during the World War.

In the third place, after the wife has been admitted to the United States she shall be subject to all the provisions of the Cable Act.

In the fourth place, the wife must be of excellent moral character and must not come within the salient excluding provisions of the immigration laws. She is only relieved from exclusion on account of trivial offenses which may have been committed during legal infancy more than five years before the passage of this act.

Your committee does not believe that a juvenile mistake followed by years of rectitude and a demonstration of excellent character, should be a perpetual bar against the alien wife of a native-born citizen who has served his country honorably in time of war.

It therefore recommends the enactment of this bill without amend

ment.

This measure passed the Senate on April 17, 1930. The Senate committee made an extensive and very complete report. This report is numbered 442, and describes the need of this legislation more in detail. From that report the following paragraph is quoted:

Before the Cable Act-September 22, 1922-the wife of an American citizen became by marriage a citizen, and was therefore admissible, ipso facto, as a citizen. The Cable Act, in providing independent citizenship for women, left, thereafter, the wife of an American citizen, an "alien," and as such, she was not admissible in the immigration sense, except as an "alien." Under existing law, the wife is therefore not permitted to enter except as an "alien." This cruel hardship brought about by this unforeseen technicality will be somewhat relieved by this bill.

There follows herewith the Cable Act, printed in roman type, and the proposed amendment by adding a section 8, which is shown in italics, thus giving the law as it will read when amended in accordance with the provision of this act. Particular attention is called to section 2 in the Cable Act, since it is this section which is affected by the new section 8 as herein proposed. No other section of the Cable Act is in any way affected, and section 2 remains intact except for a single minor modification.

[PUBLIC NO. 346-67TH CONGRESS]

[H. R. 12022]

AN ACT Relative to the naturalization and citizenship of married women

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the right of any woman to become a naturalized citizen of the United States shall not be denied or abridged because of her sex or because she is a married woman.

SEC. 2. That any woman who marries a citizen of the United States after the passage of this act, or any woman whose husband is naturalized after the passage of this act, shall not become a citizen of the United States by reason of such marriage or naturalization; but, if eligible to citizenship, she may be naturalized upon full and complete compliance with all requirements of the naturalization laws, with the following exceptions:

(a) No declaration of intention shall be required.

(b) In lieu of the five-year period of residence within the United States and the one-year period of residence within the State or Territory where the naturalization court is held, she shall have resided continuously in the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, or Porto Rico for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of the petition.

SEC. 3. That a woman citizen of the United States shall not cease to be a citizen of the United States by reason of her marriage after the passage of this act, unless she makes a formal renunciation of her citizenship before a court having jurisdiction over naturalization of aliens: Provided, That any woman citizen who marries an alien ineligible to citizenship shall cease to be a citizen of the United States. If at the termination of the marital status she is a citizen of the United States she shall retain her citizenship regardless of her residence. If during the continuance of the marital status she resides continuously for two years in a foreign State of which her husband is a citizen or subject, or for five years continuously outside the United States, she shall thereafter be subject to the same presumption as is a naturalized citizen of the United States under the second paragraph of section 2 of the act entitled "An act in reference to the expatriation of citizens and their protection abroad," approved March 2, 1907. Nothing herein shall be construed to repeal or amend the provisions of Revised Statutes 1999 or of section 2 of the expatriation act of 1907 with reference to expatriation SEC. 4. That a woman who, before the passage of this act, has lost her United States citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien eligible for citizenship, may be naturalized as provided by section 2 of this act: Provided, That no certificate of arrival shall be required to be filed with her petition if during the continuance of the marital status she shall have resided within the United States After her naturalization she shall have the same citizenship status as if her marriage had taken place after the passage of this act.

SEC. 5. That no woman whose husband is not eligible to citizenship shall be naturalized during the continuance of the marital status.

SEC. 6. That section 1994 of the Revised Statutes and section 4 of the expatriation act of 1907 are repealed. Such repeal shall not terminate citizenship acquired or retained under either of such sections nor restore citizenship lost under section 4 of the expatriation act of 1907.

SEC. 7. That section 3 of the expatriation act of 1907 is repealed.

Such repeal shall not restore citizenship lost under such section nor terminate citizenship resumed under such section. A woman who has resumed under such section citizenship lost by marriage shall, upon the passage of this act, have for all purposes the same citizenship status as immediately preceding her marriage.

SEC. 8. That any woman eligible by race to citizenship who has married a citizen of the United States before the passage of this amendment, whose husband shall have been a native-born citizen and a member of the military or naval forces of the United States during the World War, and separated therefrom under honorable conditions; if otherwise admissible, shall not be excluded from admission into the United States under section 3 of the immigration act of 1917, unless she be excluded under the provisions of that section relating to

(a) Persons afflicted with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease, except tuberculosis in any form;

(b) Polygamy;

(c) Prostitutes, procurers, or other like immoral persons;

(d) Persons convicted of crime: Provided, That no such wife shall be excluded because of offenses committed during legal infancy, while a minor under the age of twenty-one years, and for which the sentences imposed were less than three months, and which were committed more than five years previous to the date of the passage of this amendment;

(e) Persons previously deported;

(f) Contract laborers.

That after admission to the United States she shall be subject to all other provisions of this act.

MINORITY VIEWS

After all of the circumlocution employed in this bill is eliminated and its plain meaning is ascertained, its purpose is to admit an immigrant plainly excluded by the law, because of the power and influence of that immigrant's connections. The facts and record of the handling of this particular immigrant's efforts to procure admission and her rejection and the reasons for her rejection are fully and clearly stated in a statement made by the State Department to members of the House committee, who called upon that department for information, in the document copied in this report. Members should refer to it for the facts.

The bill should not be passed, first, because it sets the bad precedent of admitting by special act of Congress an individual alien in spite of the provisions of the immigration laws. Some 2,000,000 aliens are on the waiting list in foreign countries now, most of whom must be rejected, many of whom have relatives and friends here and have the same right to obtain admission by special act which is now accorded to this applicant. I am advised that this is not the only bill of this kind now pending in Congress. If this bill is passed, no Member will be in good position to refuse to introduce a bill providing for the admission of other inadmissable aliens, whose friends and relatives ask that privilege. This will be especially true of all Members supporting this bill.

Second, this alien was first granted the special privilege of a special preliminary examination by the United States consul. It was found that she was not entitled to admission. The State Department appears to have properly and firmly enforced the law in her case in the face of powerful political pressure. Thereafter, an effort was made to procure her admission by an appeal to the courts, which, from the court of first instance to the Supreme Court of the United States, denied the extraordinary privilege she sought and upheld the officials in their proper enforcement of the law.

The statement of the State Department made to members of the House committee is as follows:

JANUARY 20, 1930.

Replying to your letter of January 11, 1930, I may give the following information concerning the case of Anna Minna Venzke Ulrich:

From the records of the department it appears that John Munsill Ulrich prior to his marriage to Anna Venzke endeavored to ascertain whether she would be able to obtain a visa after the marriage had taken place. In view of the unusual circumstances in the case, the consul general at Berlin permitted Miss Venzke to be given an informal advance examination with a view to determining whether it was likely that she would be able to establish her admissibility under the immigration laws.

Following the examination Mr. Ulrich was informed that in all probability Miss Venzke would be unable to obtain an immigration visa in the event that she were later to apply for one.

Although Mr. Ulrich was warned in advance regarding the difficulty to be anticipated in bringing his wife to this country, he apparently did not alter his plans on this account and on December 17, 1927, his marriage to Miss Venzke took place.

After the marriage Mrs. Ulrich applied for a nonquota immigration visa which was refused upon the ground that the record in her case showed that she had been convicted in four instances of offenses involving moral turpitude, to wit, larceny in three cases and abetting a forgery in another case and was accordingly inadmissible to the United States under the provisions of section 3 of the act of February 5, 1917, which excludes from the United States "aliens who have been convicted of or admit having committed a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude.' In this connection it may be stated that section 2 (f) of the immigration act of 1924 requires a consular officer to refuse an immigration visa to an alien who he knows or has reason to believe is inadmissible to the United States under the immigration laws.

Subsequently, Mr. Ulrich brought mandamus proceedings to compel the issuance of a visa to Mrs. Ulrich. The Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia in United States ex rel. Ulrich v. Kellogg et al. (30 F. (2d) 984) determined that Mrs. Ulrich remained an "alien" notwithstanding her marriage to a citizen of the United States and affirmed the decree of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia overruling the application of Mr. Ulrich for a writ of mandamus. Chief Justice Martin, in rendering the opinion of the court, cited the case of Bartos v. United States District Court for District of Nebraska et al. (F. (2d) 722), in which it was held that Theft, whether it be grand or petit larceny, involves moral turpitude It may be of interest to note that the Supreme Court of the United States in United States ex. rel. Ulrich v. Stimson (279 U. S. 868) denied the petition of Mr. Ulrich for a writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.

If the information given above does not serve the purposes which you have in mind, the department will be glad to furnish any further particulars you may desire regarding the case.

Sincerely yours,

J. P. COTTON, Acting Secretary.

After the consul, the State Department, and all of the courts to which her powerful friends could appeal have applied the law to her case, it is now proposed that Congress shall over-ride the actions of all these and admit her. There is no justification for such action. The bill should not pass. JOHN C. Box.

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