REVISION OF IMMIGRATION, NATURALIZATION, AND NATIONALITY LAWS THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1951 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEES OF THE COMMITTEES ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, D. C. The joint subcommittee met at 2 p. m., pursuant to recess, in room P-36, the Capitol, Hon. Francis E. Walter presiding. Present: Senator Wiley and Representatives Walter, Feighan, Graham, and Case. Also present: Richard Arens, staff director of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate; Drury Blair and Miss Ethel Johnson, staff members of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate; Walter M. Besterman, legislative assistant to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives; and Mrs. Violet T. Benn, staff member of the House Judiciary Committee. Representative WALTER. The committee will come to order. The first witness to testify this afternoon will be the representative of the National Farm Labor Union. Will you identify yourself for the record, please? STATEMENT OF H. L. MITCHELL, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FARM LABOR UNION, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR Mr. MITCHELL. I am H. L. Mitchell, president of the National Farm Labor Union, American Federation of Labor. I have a statement which I would like to present. Representative WALTER. Very well. Mr. MITCHELL. At a time when all of America's resources are being mobilized against the rise of Communist imperialism, and casualty lists from Korea are mounting, the back door to the United States is wide open to agents of Soviet Russia. In a series of articles beginning February 19, 1951, the Los Angeles Daily News reports on the influx of Communist agents into the United States from across the border of Mexico. I quote from the Los Angeles Daily News quite a number of statements that I believe may be of interest to your committee. Alien Communist agents are filtering across the Mexican border into the United States. They are coming in the guise of farm workers recruited from Mexico to aid in harvesting crops in ripening fields and groves from California to Texas. They are intermingled with hard-working Mexican field hands legally employed in the United States under Government-approved contracts. No one knows how many Communists have used this method of invasion since the beginning of the Korean conflict. So many Mexican workers-legally contracted and illegal wetback migrants— have come across the border in recent months that the United States Immigration Service has been totally unable to exercise any effective check against incoming Communists. That there are Communists among this legion of missing men is known. That the matter is of deep concern to Government authorities is also known— and admitted by officials in their off-the-record moments. As one American border-patrol officer put it: We know there are Communists among the Mexican workers. We know Communist propaganda has been found in their possession. But we are powerless. We don't know how many get past us. Even worse, we don't know how many of those who get past us are Communist agents. We understand the FBI is working on it now. In neither of the bills now being considered by your committee is there found any provision to stop this infiltration by agents of communism from south of the border. However, another law recently adopted by Congress, as it is presently enforced, bars all persons from other parts of the world who are remotely suspected of having Communist tendencies, from entering the United States. Apparently, the left hand of the Government does not know what the right hand does, or vice versa. According to reports, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service apprehended a total of 469,581 illegal aliens from Mexico in 1950. As far as I know, there have been no estimates as to the cost of such activity. However, there have been statements made by immigration officers, that it costs the Government over $100 each to capture and return a Mexican wetback from points some 300 miles north of the international boundary. The Immigration Service required employers of laborers, who were imported under contract, to post a bond of $25 to insure the return of such workers legally in the United States. Assuming that the cost averages only $25 to deport a Mexican wetback, the Government must have spent $11,739,525 of the taxpayers' money in deporting illegal aliens from Mexico. This kind of nonessential expenditure of public funds could be greatly reduced by amending the immigration laws, to provide that any person hiring an alien illegally in the United States shall be subject to a fine and imprisonment. I suggest that specifically section 274 of S. 716 be strengthened by adding: "Any person, including an 'employer in any trade, industry or agricultural enterprise'-" and I would suggest in paragraph (2) of that section that the word "employs" be added to section (2). A The present law now in force has proved entirely inadequate. representative of the National Farm Labor Union sent a letter to the United States Attorney General inquiring about this matter, and received the following reply: Mr. WILLIAM BECKER, Bakersfield, Calif. FEBRUARY 9, 1951. DEAR MR. BECKER: This is an acknowledgement of your letter of January 19, 1951, relative to enforcement of the provisions of 8 U. S. C. 144, which would prohibit the harboring of illegal alien immigrants. No prosecutions under this provision have been filed since the rendition, on March 15, 1948, of an opinion in United States v. Paul Evans (333 U. S. 483), copy of which is enclosed, because the Court there held, in effect, that although the statute forbids the harboring and concealement of such aliens, it is so peculiarly worded that it does not allow the imposition of a sentence upon conviction. Various amendments were proposed during the last session of Congress which would clarify the statute and provide a definite punishment for infringement of its terms, but none of these was enacted. Doubtless, similar proposals will be made to the present Congress. Respectfully, JAMES M. MCINERNEY, Assistant Attorney General (For the Attorney General). While I am not a lawyer, it appears to me that Congress should draft its laws in a manner that a layman can understand the language. It is my belief that this section of our immigration laws should be very clear, so that any person reading it will know what it means. As long as our Government permits employers to profit by hiring persons illegally in the United States, there are going to be increasing numbers of Mexican wetbacks coming in each year, driving native American citizens off the farms. American workers cannot compete with the low standards of living of Mexicon peons. Prior to 1942, the Immigration Service says that less than 6,000 illegal aliens from Mexico were apprehended each year, but now the total has reached nearly a half million a year, and the inadequately staffed border patrol can no more stop the wetbacks than Old Canute with the low standards of living of Mexican peons. Aside from the greed of some American employers of agricultural labor, and the knowledge that there is no immigration law which would penalize the employer for hiring illegal aliens, the thing that started this mass movement of Mexicon nationals to the United States was the action by Congress in 1943, which to all intents and purposes prohibited the use of Government funds to recruit and transport domestic farm labor from labor surplus areas to areas of labor shortages. More than 100,000 Mexican nationals were recruited each year during World War II for employment on farms and, although the need for such importation was ended soon after the war, the program was continued each year. One hundred and twenty thousand Mexicans were imported in 1950. These contract workers imported under the international agreement between the United States and Mexico were recruited from points far within the interior of Mexico. Word of fantastic wages being paid by the "Yanqui" farm operators spread among the Mexican peons and a mass migration to the border cities was started. Upon arrival they found they could not enter as contract workers legally, so they crossed the border illegally. Wherever huge masses of poor starving people gather, the Communists are to be found carrying on their propaganda work. How many agents of the Soviet Union have entered the United States through its open back door, no one knows. While the National Farm Labor Union is anxious to see that there is an adequate labor supply for cultivating, planting, and harvesting crops necessary to national defense, we believe that there are adequate labor supplies available in the United States and its possessions to supply any real need for workers in agriculture. We do not oppose the importation, under legal contract, of workers actually needed by agricultural employers. However, we are concerned that such workers be adequately screened and all types of subversive elements be barred from the United States. Under section 215 (c) of S. 716, the Attorney General is authorized to determine the necessity for importation of any alien as a nonimmigrant upon the petition of an important employer. In our opinion, this section should be strengthened by requiring the Attorney General to cause an investigation to be made to determine the necessity of importing such an alien, and where a number of such aliens are to be imported, conduct public hearings with an opportunity for all interested persons to appear, and then on the basis of such hearings, make his decision as to whether or not the importation of such workers shall be permitted. Similarly, section 101 (a) (14) (H) should be strengthened by requiring public hearings to determine whether or not there are unemployed persons capable of performing such service or labor before aliens enter the United States on a temporary basis. We also believe that exemption of immigrants from the countries of the Western Hemisphere from quota provisions should be removed. I am told that nearly half the persons entering the United States as immigrants are now from such countries. In my opinion, all who do enter the United States with the desire of becoming citizens should be on an equal basis. That completes my statement, Mr. Chairman. I would like to submit for your consideration a full set of the articles appearing in the Los Angeles Daily News dealing with the entry of workers from Mexico. Representative WALTER. Thank you. You may leave them with us and the committee will determine whether or not they will be incorporated in the record. Mr. MITCHELL. Thank you. Representative WALTER. Do you have any questions, Senator? Senator WILEY. I just wanted to ask, based upon what I have heard here, what the attitude of the witness was in relation to labor, say from Mexico, that comes in and assists on the seasonal crops: like canning peas. In my State we have found that we have been unable to get labor during certain periods, and the result has been that they have gotten Mexican labor to come in and start in the spring and handle the vegetables and see it through. Is there objection to that on your part? Mr. MITCHELL. We object to the importation of any foreign labor while there are American citizens unemployed. We believe that our labor supply could be so organized that if any such work is needed we can use our own labor. Senator WILEY. Have you any statistics to prove that conclusion? The fact of the matter is, if you had not gotten them during the war and at other times, you would not have gotten your food. Mr. MITCHELL. Well, I might differ with you on that. As to statistics, I think one of the best sources of additional labor is one that was recently referred to by the Joint Committee on the Economic Report, I believe is what it is entitled, where it shows that there are 3,000,000 submarginal farm operators in this country earning less than $1,000 a year. And it appears to me that there is a potential supply |