Commissioner of Immigration

“ Sargent, "that they should be denied admission, wrong that they ever should have been started from home." In the new Immigration Law enacted by Congress in February, 1907, provision was made for giving information to immigrants, after their landing in the country, such as may guide them in the choice of their place of settlement. It authorized the Commissioner-General of Immigration to establish a Division of Information, the duty of which shall be "to promote a beneficial distribution of aliens admitted into the United States among the several States and Territories desiring immigration." ”

“ The narrowness of a measure that would impose upon any one class of people the expense of an immigration department is manifest. The innumerable and widely ramifying benefits resulting from judicious immigration effort are shared by everybody, and the expense should be borne by everybody.
Aside from this inequity, there are many objections to the plan of giving the proposed commissioner an interest in the sale of lands. As an officer of the State he should be free from any possibility of bias as to any part of the State or any specific properties. ”

“ To replace such a system by the clumsy machinery of a central board, or by a single Commissioner, stationed at an inland city, remote from the chief objective points of foreign immigration, with an unwieldy multitude of subordinates scattered over the land, whose irresponsibility would inevitably increase in the direct ratio of their distance from the seat of authority, would be worse than unreasonable. ”

“ The man who now stands at the gates of Ellis Island turns his socially trained mind toward the development of methods for the protection and assimilation of the immigrant after the gates have closed upon him. But the best conceived plans of this Commissioner of Immigration and others who have long studied the question will be fruitless unless, throughout the country, an intelligent and respectful attitude toward the stranger is sedulously cultivated. ”

“ No State officer is in a position to bring greater returns to the State than the immigration commissioner, and it is to be regretted that his work is so often crippled by lack of sufficient appropriations. ”

“ Since the Federal Government finally took charge of immigration in 1882, great improvement has been made in method and administration. The inspection is humane, prompt, and on the whole kindly, although entrance examinations are as much dreaded by the average immigrant as by the average student. Commissioner Watchorn, an admirable man for his place, insists upon kindness, and want of it in an employee is cause for dismissal. ”

“ Each Commissioner of Emigration shall have power to administer an oath to, and examine under oath, any witness respecting any complaint made by any person relative to the ship in which any passenger was brought to the United States, or the treatment of any passenger during the voyage, or the food or drink furnished to any passenger on the voyage, or the death on the voyage of any passenger ”

“ The regulations prescribe the procedure to be followed in processing an alien's application for suspension of deportation. Until the 1952 revision of the regulations, the procedure called for decisions at three separate administrative levels below the AttorneyGeneral-hearing officer, Commissioner, and the Board of Immigration Appeals. ”

“ Commissioner of Immigration (C. C. A.) 36 F. (2d) 1022, which in turn cites United States ex rel. Rios v. Day (C. C. A.) 24 F. (2d) 654. A contrary decision was reached by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Carr, Director of Immigration v. ”

“ Certain regulations of the Commissioner General of Immigration are cited; and it is alleged that the United States officials threatened that, if the bills were not paid, thereafter all aliens so brought to this country would be held on board ship until their application for admission to the United States should be finally adjudicated. ”

“ IN his recent report for the Bureau of Immigration, Commissioner General Sargent again calls attention to the dangers arising from the inadequate immigration laws of the United States. He contends that the time has come when some more effective restrictions must be introduced than those that have so far obtained. Although protests against prevailing legislation on immigration have been heard for more than fifty years, real cause for alarm has, perhaps, existed only within recent years. ”

“ The growing evil has finally led to the adoption of means for a radical cure, by placing the landing of the entire immigration under the direct supervision of the Commissioners of Emigration. A law was passed by the Legislature of the State, in April, 1855, compelling all vessels bringing emigrant passengers to this port to land them at one wharf, to be designated by the Commissioners of Emigration, and imposing a heavy fine for any deviation from the rule thus established. ”

“ Section 3 of the earlier act enumerates various classes of aliens who are excluded from admission into the United States, among them all persons from certain Asiatic territory with specified exceptions. The Act of 1921, as amended. is an act to limit the number of aliens who may be admitted under the immigration laws to the United States. ”

“ The best and most efficient agents of the Commissioners of Emigration have served under them from May 5, 1847, that is, from the birth of the Commission. They have educated themselves and others to a proper comprehension and discharge of their duties. ”

“ The Commissioners trust that this advice will be received and acted upon with that confidence to which it is entitled, from being given by persons who have no interest but that of the welfare of the emigrant, whose duties make them perfectly familiar with the subject, and who act not as private citizens, but under the authority and supervision of the Government of the State. ”

“ They must be considered in any movement for a unified America. They have always been approached by our government from some sectional, local, or isolated point of view. They have never been approached from the national point of view. The 42 volumes of the Federal Immigration Commission are silent on a national policy other than the negative one of exclusion. They deal exhaustively with conditions in industry, in philanthropy, but nowhere do they lead us to a policy of a program for America that meets its present requirements. ”

“ On this point the Commission recommended specifically that if it be found that the immigration of aliens into any area has substantially contributed to any overcrowding, and that it is expedient that no further newly-arrived aliens should become residents in such area, the same may be declared prohibited area. ”

“ But whatever be the case with purely voluntary emigration, all attempts to artificially encourage it by state grants or private benevolence, will, we may be sure, be vigilantly watched by the anti-immigrationists in every new country. The legal powers at present possessed by the Commissioners of Immigration in the United States are very feeble, the only persons with whom they can interfere, under the act of 1882, being "convicts, lunatics, idiots, or persons unable to take care of themselves without becoming a public charge;" ”

“ They are familiar with all the minutiae of the service, and are consequently able to perform their work more speedily and efficiently than inexperienced new-comers. The uniformity and stability of the system, the undisturbed march of progress and reform, the absence of sudden changes, form an indisposition to try new experiments, constitute, indeed, the main reasons of the success of the New York Commission of Emigration, which would never have been attained if, with the advent of every national administration, a change of officers and clerks had taken place. ”

“ After a hearing before a Special Inquiry Officer, he was ordered deported as an alien not in possession of a valid immigration visa; this order was affirmed on appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. ”

“ The New York Commissioners of Emigration have annually to support an average of about 2,000 sick and destitute in their institutions, and, besides, a few hundred criminals, who are confined at their cost in the city prisons; but all this does not amount to one per cent, of the entire immigration. It must be borne in mind that the poorer emigrants remain in New York City, and that, consequently, it cannot be presumed that any large number of the others become a burden to the several States. ”

“ Those Commissioners induced the Common Council to press the immediate passage of a law to protect emigrants from fraud and imposition. That, however, was simply a flank movement. The provisions of their bill merely kept the word of promise to the ear of the emigrants. In the meantime, the real friends of reform prepared a substitute, which, when the Assembly bill came to the Senate, was offered by Senator F. F. Backus, from Monroe County. ”

“ The same persons also seem to overlook entirely the beneficial influence exercised upon the immigrant by the protection against fraud and imposition of every kind afforded to him by the Commissioners. ”

“ We also have hundreds of thousands of people who have been ordered to leave our country, who then disappear back into the population. I have instructed the Justice Department, and particularly the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to come up with a plan in which we can cooperate with the States to identify these people and move them out as well.
Our country was built by immigrants, but it was built also by people who obeyed the law. We must be able to control our borders; we must uphold respect for our laws. ”

“ It is obvious that the General Government would encounter a great many more insurmountable obstacles and be called upon to remedy more evils than are met with under the present system. In the first instance, the institutions for the protection of the immigrant would have to be largely extended, and instead of one place like Castle Garden, a dozen would be required. ”

“ The issue here presented is whether the Congress reversed itself in the 1952 Immigration Act and in effect reinstated the Sung case by making the hearing provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act directly applicable to deportation proceedings. A comparison of the pertinent provisions of the two statutes is perhaps the strongest indication that the Congress had no such intention.
1. Section 242 (b) of the Immigration Act begins by enumerating the functions of the special inquiry officer, that he shall administer oaths, receive evidence, etc. ”

“ Upon the notification by the Attorney General that any country upon request denies or unduly delays acceptance of the return of any alien who is a national, citizen, subject or resident thereof, the Secretary of State shall instruct consular officers performing their duties in the territory of such country to discontinue the issuance of immigration visas to nationals, citizens, subjects, or residents of such country, until such time as the Attorney General shall inform the Secretary of State that such country has accepted such alien. ”

“ It is the policy of the executive branch to empower State and local law enforcement agencies across the country to perform the functions of an immigration officer in the interior of the United States to the maximum extent permitted by law. ”

“ The legislative history of § 106 (a) does not strengthen the position of the Immigration Service. The 'basic purpose' of the procedural portions of the 1961 legislation was, as we stated in Foti, evidently 'to expedite the deportation of undesirable aliens by preventing successive dilatory appeals to various federal courts * * *.' 375 U.S., at 226, 84 S.Ct. at 312. Congress prescribed for this purpose several procedural innovations, among them the device of direct petitions for review to the courts of appeals. ”

“ We need not speculate as to Congress' purposes. Quite possible, as Judge Browning has persuasively suggested, 'Congress visualized a single administrative proceeding in which all questions relating to an alien's deportation would be raised and resolved, followed by a single petitiion in a court of appeals for judicial review * * *.' Yamada v. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 384 F.2d 214, 218. It may therefore be that Congress expected the Immigration Service to include within the § 242 (b) proceeding 'all issues which might affect deportation.' Ibid. ”

“ If a written deportation order is issued to a foreigner who is reported to the head of office or branch office or the head of a foreigner internment camp under Article 84 (2) , the head of the prison, juvenile prison, detention house and its branch, protective or medical internment camp, or juvenile reformatory shall hand him over to an immigration control official at the same time he is released from such institution. ”

“ Where an official's authority to act depends upon the status of the person affected, in this case eligibility for citizenship, that status, when in dispute, may be determined by a declaratory judgment proceeding after the exhaustion of administrative remedies. Under § 19 (c) of the Immigration Act the exercise of the Attorney General's appropriate discretion in suspending deportation is prohibited in the case of aliens ineligible for citizenship. The alien is determined to have a proscribed status by this administrative ruling of ineligibility. ”

“ The Chief of the Office of Citizenship and New Americans shall—
(A) promote institutions and training on citizenship responsibilities for aliens interested in becoming naturalized citizens of the United States, including the development of educational materials for such aliens; (B) provide general leadership, consultation, and coordination of the immigrant integration programs across the Federal Government and with State and local entities ”