DEPORTATION OF ALIENS.

The figures for the year show a large increase in the number of aliens deported from the United States for various causes under the immigration law over those deported for like causes in the fiscal year 1920, the figures for the two years being 4,517 and 2,762, respectively. The following table will serve to show the numbers deported, by races:

Considerable difficulty has been experienced in effecting the deportation of aliens of the anarchist and kindred classes. The majority of the aliens ordered to be deported because of their beliefs or activities along these lines were of Russian nationality. Between the time of the sailing of the Buford on December 21, 1919, which carried a large number of Russian deportees of this class, and December, 1920, it was impossible to effect any deportations whatever to that country. Arrangements were finally perfected to get aliens being deported through to Russia by sending them through Latvia. In the neighborhood of 350 were subsequently deported by way of this route before the Soviet régime closed the borders of Russia to all Russian deportees from the United States in April last. Altogether, there were 446 aliens, of all nationalities, who were arrested under the anarchist provisions of the immigration law and actually deported in the present fiscal year.

Section 23 of the immigration act of February 5, 1917, makes it the duty of the Commissioner General of Immigration to detail officers of the Immigration Service from time to time to secure information as to the number of aliens detained in the penal reformatory and charitable institutions of the several States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, and to inform the officers of such institutions of the provisions of law in relation to the deportation of aliens who have become public charges. The inability to effect deportation to the various countries of Europe during the progress of the war and for many months thereafter, owing to the lack of transportation facilities, resulted in the accumulation in eleemosy nary institutions in the United States of in the neighborhood 3,000 aliens, mostly insane, who were being maintained and supporte by the public funds of the various States. With the improvemen in sailing conditions in the fiscal years 1920 and 1921 these accumul tions have been practically cleared up by the deportation of the alien

so held. Of those left in these institutions who were under orders of deportation the majority are of Russian nationality and can not be deported so long as the borders of that country remain closed. The lack of a sufficient appropriation to carry on the work will prevent a systematic or extensive combing over of the penal reformatories and charitable institutions in the present year, although as much work will be done in this direction as our limited financial resources will permit.

The existing passport requirements of virtually all the nations are such as to require the obtaining of a passport for every alien who is deported from the United States. These passports are obtained from the diplomatic or consular representatives of the country of which the alien happens to be a citizen or subject. In almost every instance these representatives require the presentation of documentary evidence of the citizenship of the alien before they will issue a passport to or for him. All too frequently the alien has lost his documentary evidence of citizenship, which fact renders it necessary to enter into correspondence with the country concerned, through the Department of State, in an endeavor to obtain such evidence. All of this entails a vast amount of work, and the results are usually quite uncertain. In the present fiscal year it has been necessary to proceed in this manner to obtain passports in more than six hundred

cases.

During the fiscal year there have been 9 "coast to coast" deportation parties, which conveyed a total of 1,176 aliens from all parts of the United States to the several coast and border ports for return to the respective countries whence they came. This system has been found to be the most satisfactory and economical of any yet devised for the deportation of considerable numbers of aliens from the country. A brief description of the system will, it is believed, be of interest. A party of aliens, under departmental orders of deportation, is formed at New York City under the immediate direction of the bureau's deporting officer. This party then proceeds to New Orleans, where it is joined to another party arriving from Chicago. When these two parties meet at New Orleans they have gathered up all aliens in the eastern section of the United States who are being returned to Mexico by way of the Mexican border or to the Orient by way of San Francisco. The party then proceeds along the Mexican border, leaving aliens who are being deported to Mexico in the hands of the appropriate immigration authorities along the border to be placed across the line, and receiving from these officers aliens for later delivery farther along the line, for return to Mexico or for delivery at San Francisco for deportation to China, Japan, and other sections of the Orient. At San Francisco are assembled all aliens in the coast States who are to be deported to Europe. Whereupon the party turns eastward, the deportation train being met at several points by parties gathered from north and south of the line of travel, so that upon the arrival of the train at New York a complete sweep of the country has been made. Of course, aliens who are arrested along the borders and are subject to return to either Canada or Mexico, as the case may be, and who may be placed across the line at a point not too far remote from where apprehended, are not joined

to these parties. Neither are aliens joined to it who have been apprehended within a reasonable distance of the seaport from which their deportation is to occur.

THE PER CENTUM LIMIT ACT.

The important event in the immigration record of the year, and in fact one of the most radical and far-reaching events in the annals of immigration legislation, was the enactment of the law of May 19, 1921, entitled "An Act to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States." This law went into effect June 3, 1921, and, therefore, was in operation 28 days during the fiscal year under consideration. As this is the first strictly immigration law which provides for actually limiting the number of aliens, other than Asiatics, who may be admitted to the United States, a brief review of the legislation may not be out of place in this report.

On December 13, 1920, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 295 to 41 passed a bill which provided for the temporary suspension of all immigration into the United States, with the exception of certain exempt classes. The Senate amended this act by substituting the so-called per centum limit plan of restriction and this prevailed, but executive approval was withheld and the compromise measure failed to become a law prior to the final adjournment of the Sixtysixth Congress on March 4. The proposed measure was immediately introduced in both Houses at the beginning of the present Congress, and, as already stated, became a law on May 19, 1921.

The act is a brief one, its essential provisions being as follows:

SEC. 2. (a) That the number of aliens of any nationality who may be admitted under the immigration laws to the United States in any fiscal year shall be limited to 3 per centum of the number of foreign-born persons of such nationality resident in the United States as determined by the United States census of 1910. This provision shall not apply to the following, and they shall not be counted in reckoning any of the percentage limits provided in this act: (1) Government officials, their families, attendants, servants, and employees; (2) aliens in continuous transit through the United States; (3) aliens lawfully admitted to the United States who later go in transit from one part of the United States to another through foreign contiguous territory; (4) aliens visiting the United States as tourists or temporarily for business or pleasure; (5) aliens from countries immigration from which is regulated in accordance with treaties or agreements relating solely to immigration; (6) aliens from the so-called Asiatic barred zone, as described in section 3 of the immigration act; (7) aliens who have resided continuously for at least one year immediately preceding the time of their admission to the United States in the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Mexico, countries of Central or South America, or adjacent islands; or (8) aliens under the age of eighteen who are children of citizens of the United States.

(b) For the purposes of this act nationality shall be determined by country of birth, treating as separate countries the colonies or dependencies for which separate enumeration was made in the United States census of 1910.

(c) The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, jointly, shall, as soon as feasible after the enactment of this act, prepare a statement showing the number of persons of the various nationalities resident in the United States as determined by the United States census of 1910, which statement shall be the population basis for the purposes of this act. In case of changes in political boundaries in foreign countries occurring subsequent to 1910 and resulting (1) in the creation of new countries, the Governments of which are recognized by the United States, or (2) in the transfer of territory from one country to another, such transfer being recognized by the United States, such officials, jointly, shall estimate the number of persons resident in the United States in 1910 who were born within the area included in such new countries or in such territory so transferred, and revise

the population basis as to each country involved in such change of political boundary. For the purpose of such revision and for the purposes of this act generally aliens born in the area included in any such new country shall be considered as having been born in such country, and aliens born in any territory so transferred shall be considered as having been born in the country to which such territory was transferred.

(d) When the maximum number of aliens of any nationality who may be admitted in any fiscal year under this act shall have been admitted all other aliens of such nationality, except as otherwise provided in this act, who may apply for admission during the same fiscal year shall be excluded: Provided, That the number of aliens of any nationality who may be admitted in any month shall not exceed 20 per centum of the total number of aliens of such nationality who are admissible in that fiscal year: Provided further, That aliens returning from a temporary visit abroad, aliens who are professional actors, artists, lectu.ers, singers, nurses, ministers of any religious denomination, professors for colleges or seminaries, aliens belonging to any recognized learned profession, or aliens employed as domestic servants, may, if otherwise admissible, be admitted notwithstanding the maximum number of aliens of the same nationality admissible in the same month or fiscal year, as the case may be, shall have entered the United States; but aliens of the classes included in this proviso who enter the United States before such maximum number shall have entered shall (unless excluded by subdivision (a) from being counted) be counted in reckoning the percentage limits provided in this act: Provided further, That in the enforcement of this act preference shall be given so far as possible to the wives, parents, brothers, sisters, children under eighteen years of age, and fiancées, (1) of citizens of the United States, (2) of aliens now in the United States who have applied for citizenship in the manner provided by law, or (3) of persons eligible to United States citizenship who served in the military or naval forces of the United States at any time between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, both dates inclusive, and have been separated from such forces under honorable conditions.

It will be noted that immigration from certain countries and areas does not come within the provisions of the law, and, eliminating these, it is found that it is applicable only to aliens coming from Europe, including Trans-Caucasia, the region comprising prewar Turkey in Asia, Persia, Africa, Australasia, all islands of the Atlantic, and certain minor islands of the Pacific. The immigration of aliens who are natives of countries of the New World is not at all subject to the provisions of the act nor are aliens born elsewhere who have resided in New World countries for at least one year affected. Asiatic immigration, being otherwise regulated by laws, treaties, or agreements, is also outside the provisions of the per centum law.

It will be noted further that the law provides for adjusting the foreign-born population resident in the United States in 1910 to the various countries of Europe as they exist at the present time, and this necessitated assigning immigration quotas not only to countries whose boundaries had remained unchanged but also to countries and areas hitherto unknown in immigration statistics. Moreover, it was necessary under the terms of the act to determine the number of aliens who might be admitted from such countries between June 3, when the law went into effect, and June 30, the end of the fiscal year, as well as during the fiscal year 1922 and any month thereof.

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The task imposed upon the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and yourself in this respect was completed on June 2, one day before the law went into effect, and the quotas were allotted as follows:

Number of aliens admissible under the act of May 19, 1921, entitled "An act to limit the immigration of aliens into the United States."

1 Given up by Austria and Hungary, and therefore can not be included in either of these countries. As Eastern Galicia was given up by Austria, according to the treaty of St. Germain, but is not yet allotted to any other country (the eastern boundary of Poland being not yet defined), the quota of Eastern Galicia will be 5,781 (Poland 20,019) for the fiscal year 1922.

3 The Smyrna District is under Greek military administration; no treaty had gone into effect detaching this district from Turkey or placing it under Greek administration or under local parliament; the quota for the Smyrna District will be 438 (Turkey 215) for the fiscal year 1922.

It will be noted that the per centum limit law was enacted May 19, 1921, and that, so far as its principal provisions were concerned, it became effective June 3. Evidently the Congress considered that 15 days was a sufficient warning to transportation companies, but notwithstanding the warning, somewhat more than 10,000 aliens of various nationalities were brought to the United States during the month of June in excess of the quota allotted for that month. These aliens were, of course, entirely innocent and were, indeed, the helpless