A branch of the Bureau of Naturalization was also established at Ellis Island to furnish certificates of arrival to immigrants for naturalization purposes."

88

The citizenship-training activities which had in 1921 been relegated to a position of secondary importance in the organization, were now restored to a coördinate relationship, and a program of promotion of the training of teachers for Americanization or citizenship training classes was put under way.

89

In the fiscal year 1924 certain difficulties were encountered under the reorganization plan because of increased volume of naturalization work without correspondingly increased appropriations. The issuance of certificates of arrival at Ellis Island had in 1923 been cared for, as to expenditures, out of lapsed moneys. Estimates for continuing this work in 1924 were not approved, and hence to avoid deficits, travel for examiners during the last four months of the fiscal year was practically abandoned.

The fiscal year 1925 saw further changes in organization, especially in relation to work in the field. With regard to this an annual report speaks at length:

In conformity with the program of the President to secure the most efficient operation of the administrative machinery of the Naturalization Bureau and Naturalization Field Service with the minimum personnel, a survey was made of the Bureau in Washington and the entire Naturalization Field Service by experienced representatives of the department and Bureau working jointly during the latter half of the fiscal year. This showed that the districts requiring rearrangement were those established prior to 1909 under the Department of Justice, and which in that year were combined with the Bureau headquarters into an entire administrative unit. The rearrangement that was planned was based upon the number of petitions for naturalization and their distribution throughout the country, the up-to-date facilities for travel, the state judicial circuits, and the jurisdiction of United States district courts. Consideration was also had of the large volume of naturalization work in the largest centers of population. The rule of state boundaries which dominated the former district alignment was abandoned. Districts which comprised large expanse of territory were reformed into compact, readily operated units, one of the main objectives of

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The naturalization work at Ellis Island had previously been cared for by Bureau of Immigration employees.

89

A statistical presentation of the data contained in the files of naturalization papers was planned and a complete program worked out but it was not put into operation.

the reorganization being to build up an organization that would be mobile, and compact in each of the units of the field service. The reorganization as finally approved by the department comprises 23 districts, in four of which there is a subdistrict, making 27 stations in all. Many changes in the personnel in the various districts necessarily followed upon the redistricting of the whole country. These consisted in reductions in personnel at points where they were found to be overmanned, their assignment to points where the personnel was inadequate, and the elimination of such personnel as could not be profitably reassigned."

In the field of citizenship training also, the expansion begun in 1923 was terminated and a drastic curtailment carried out. With regard to this a report says:

The activities of the Bureau were abridged during the year under opinions of the Solicitor for the Department of Labor and the Comptroller General, with the result that the personnel engaged upon this work [citizenship training] in the Bureau was further reduced to what is now an irreducible minimum."

The work of industrial coöperation previously initiated was also discontinued as of November 1, 1924.

Further changes occurred in respect to naturalization procedure during 1925:

The course pursued by the applicant for first papers has been to secure the specially prepared blank form, furnish therein the information relating to himself that is required in a declaration of intention, and then present it to the clerk of the court. During the last year, however, all aliens arriving since the quota restrictions in the immigration law became effective were expected to prove their legal presence in the United States before making the declaration. This introduced a new step into the procedure and an earlier contact between the Bureau and the alien prospective declarant than heretofore."

Summary. This brief review of the activities and legislation concerned with the problem of naturalization from the beginning of the United States Government to date will serve as a background against which to project the picture of present activities in the following chapter.

40 Commissioner of Naturalization, Annual Report, 1925, p. 13.

CHAPTER II

ACTIVITIES

The Bureau of Naturalization is charged with administrative supervision of the laws concerning the preparation and training of all alien-born applicants for citizenship and their admission to citizenship. It exercises a control of the process of admission to citizenship by representing the government at the judicial hearings of naturalization petitions of applicants for citizenship. It keeps the necessary records pertinent thereto, furnishes information to aliens and others regarding the status, rights, and obligations of citizens, and coöperates in the work of citizenship training by public schools throughout the United States.

While the functions and duties above outlined comprise those for which the Bureau is responsible they do not include all functions and duties necessary to the process of conferring citizenship upon an alien. The complementary group of activities necessary to this process falls to the courts.

Duties of the Courts. The work of the courts is, strictly speaking, independent of the Bureau, except that Congress has reserved to the government the right to be present at the hearing on each petition for naturalization.' To use a familiar analogy the court manufactures a product (citizens) the raw material for which (alien applicants) is inspected and approved by the Bureau. Thus while the activities of the court are technically independent, they are at the same time vital to the work of the Bureau, and hence demand description. They are, moreover, the basic process without which there would be no reason for the existence of the Bureau.

Both state and federal courts may exercise naturalization jurisdiction."

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'This right is exercised through the Bureau of Naturalization.

Since 1907 the average number of state courts exercising jurisdiction over naturalization has been approximately 2100 (maximum 2277) of federal courts approximately 217 (maximum 250) and of both slightly over

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Courts eligible to grant citizenship as specified in the act of June 29, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 596), are: "United States . . . district courts now existing or which hereafter may be established by Congress in any State, United States district courts for Porto

2300 (maximum 2527). The work done by these courts is illustrated by the table below:

'The word "eligible" is used advisedly, since the work is compulsory only in the case of United States courts. State or territorial courts may refuse to assume the obligation. The number of courts granting citizenship (and kind) are included in the following table:

Rico, and for the Territories of . . . Hawaii and Alaska, the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia . . .; also all courts of record in any state or territory now existing or which hereafter may be created, having a seal, a clerk and jurisdiction in actions at law or equity, or law and equity, in which the amount in controversy is unlimited." The state court jurisdiction is certified to by the attorney-general or equivalent officer of the state. Activities. The courts are responsible for the direct and immediate process of conferring citizenship upon aliens. This is dependent upon the satisfactory establishment of the applicants' eligibility from the standpoint of residence, character, beliefs, intentions and the perfection in form and procedure of the various technicalities of the process.

Such eligibility is determined at the court hearings upon evidence offered by the examiners of the Bureau representing the government in support of or in objection to the admissibility of the alien and by affidavits of accredited witnesses. This evidence relates to and includes the requirements of the law concerning the preparation and filing of various necessary blanks and forms. In rare instances the judges personally interrogate candidates.

Clerks of Courts. The specific duties of clerks of the courts having and exercising jurisdiction in naturalization, as described in the act of 1906, are as follows:

SEC. 5. ... immediately after filing the petition, give notice thereof by posting. ; and . . . if the applicant requests it, issue a subpoena for the witness

to appear.

SEC. 12. . . . keep and file a duplicate of each declaration of intention made before him and to send to the Bureau . . . within thirty days after the issuance of a certificate of citizenship, a duplicate of such certificate, and to make and keep on file in his office a stub for each certificate . . . to report to the said Bureau . . the name of each and every alien who shall be denied naturalization, and to furnish to said Bureau duplicates of all petitions . and certified copies of such other proceedings and orders instituted in or issued out of said court affecting or relating to the naturalization of aliens as may be required from time to time by the said Bureau.

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* Jurisdiction extends only to aliens resident within the judicial districts of the courts specified.