ERA HELENE HAMER (VERA HELGA MUELLER) AND SONJA MARGRET HAMER (SONJA MARGOT MUELLER) JULY 30 (legislative day, JULY 27), 1953.-Ordered to be printed Mr. LANGER, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 1198] The Committee on the Judiciary, to which was referred the bill S. 1198) for the relief of Vera Helene Hamer (Vera Helga Mueller) nd Sonja Margret Hamer (Sonja Margot Mueller), having considered he same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment in the nature f a substitute, and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. AMENDMENT Strike all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the ollowing: That, for the purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Vera Helene lamer (Vera Helga Mueller) and Sonja Margret Hamer (Sonja Margot Mueller) hall be held and considered to have been lawfully admitted to the United States or permanent residence as of the date of the enactment of this Act. Upon the ranting of permanent residence to such aliens as provided for in this Act, the ecretary of State shall instruct the proper quota-control officer to deduct two umbers from the appropriate quota for the first year that such quota is available. PURPOSE OF THE BILL The purpose of the bill, as amended, is to grant the status of pernanent residence in the United States to two minor children who have Deen adopted by citizens of the United States. The bill has been mended to grant the children permanent residence in the United states inasmuch as the children are presently in this country with he adoptive mother. STATEMENT OF FACTS The beneficiaries of the bill are twin girls, natives and citizens of Germany, born on April 3 and 4, 1951. They have been adopted S. Repts., 83-1, vol. 3- -99 by Mr. and Mrs. Burlin B. Hamer and came to this country as visitors on August 27, 1952. Mr. Hamer is presently in Korea with the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency and the children are with Mrs. Hamer in this country. A letter, with attached memorandum, dated July 21, 1953, to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee from the Commissioner of Immigration with reference to the case reads as follows: Hon. WILLIAM LANGER, Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. JULY 21, 1953. DEAR SENATOR: In response to your request of the Department of Justice for a report relative to the bill (S. 1198) for the relief of Vera Helene Hamer (Vers Helga Mueller) and Sonja Margret Hamer (Sonja Margot Mueller) there is annexed a memorandum of information from the Immigration and Naturalization Service files concerning the beneficiaries. The bill would confer nonquota status upon the alien children by providing that they shall be considered the natural born alien children of Mr. and Mrs. Burlin Burdette Hamer, citizens of the United States. It should be noted that the initial "D" on the last line of the bill should be "B." The quota for Germany, to which the children are chargeable, is not oversubscribed at this time, and it appears possible that they may be eligible for quota immigrant visas. Sincerely, Acting Commissioner. MEMORANDUM OF INFORMATION FROM IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE FILES RE VERA HELENE Hamer (Vera Helga MUELLER) AND SONJA MARGRET HAMER (SONJA MARGOT MUELLER), BENEFICIARIES OF S. 1198 Information concerning the beneficiaries of the bill was furnished by Mr. Burlin B. Hamer, the adoptive mother of the alien children. The aliens, who are twin girls, are natives and citizens of Germany. Sonja Margret (Margaret) was born on April 3, 1951, and Vera Helene was born 20 minutes later on April 4, 1951 There is no available information concerning their natural parents. Adoption proceedings were instituted in Berlin, Germany during March 1952 by Mrs. and Mrs. Hamer, United States citizens, and the adoption became final on August 5, 1952. The children were brought to the United States by their adoptive parents, and were admitted as visitors at New York on August 27, 1952, to remain until February 27, 1953. An extension of stay has been granted until August 26, 1953, Following their arrival in the United States the children were officially adopted under the laws of the State of Iowa, by a decree of adoption dated October 15, 1952. Mr. Hamer was born in Waterloo, Iowa on March 15, 1914, and Mrs. Hamer was born in New Providence, Iowa on June 8, 1916. They were married in Iowa on June 30, 1940. No children have been born of the marriage. Mr. Hamer has been in the Foreign Service of the United States Government and with the United Nations since 1945. Prior to their last return to the Unites States be was agricultural attaché, attached to the American Embassy in Moscow, Russia where he served for 2 years. He is now in Korea where he is Chief of the Food and Agriculture Division of the United Netions Korean Reconstruction Agency. Mrs. Hamer has lived abroad with Mr. Hamer sine 1945, but she is presenty residing in the United States. Senator Guy M. Gillette, the author of the bill, has submitted s voluminous file on the case which file is contained in the files of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee, after consideration of all the facts in the case, is of the opinion that the bill (S. 1198), as amended, should be enacted. JULY 30 (legislative day, JULY 27), 1953.-Ordered to be printed Mr. LANGER, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 1323] The Committee on the Judiciary, to which was referred the bill (S. 1323) for the relief of Lydia L. A. Samraney, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. AMENDMENT On line 8, change the period to a colon and add the following: : Provided, That this exemption shall apply only to a ground for exclusion of which the Department of State or the Department of Justice has knowledge prior to the enactment of this Act. PURPOSE OF THE BILL The purpose of the bill, as amended, is to waive the excluding provision of existing law relating to the conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude in behalf of the wife of a United States citizen member of our Armed Forces. The bill has been amended in accordance with the suggestion contained in the letter from the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. STATEMENT OF FACTS The beneficiary of the bill is a 30-year-old native and citizen of Germany who was married to Sgt. Joseph M. Samraney on June 4, 1950, in Germany. The record discloses the beneficiary of the bill was convicted of theft in Germany on March 16, 1945, for taking a dress from her employer although the dress was later returned. Without the waiver provided for in the bill the beneficiary will be unable to join her citizen husband in this country. A letter, with attached memorandum, dated April 20, 1953, to the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary from the Commissioner of Immigration with reference to the case, reads as follows: APRIL 20, 1953. Hon. WILLIAM LANGER, Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR: In response to your request of the Department of Justice for a report relative to the bill (S. 1323) for the relief of Lydia L. A. Samraney, there is annexed a memorandum of information from the Immigration and Naturalization Service files concerning the beneficiary. The bill would exempt the alien from the provisions of section 212 (a) (9) of the Immigration and Nationality Act which exclude from admission to the United States aliens who have been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude. It is suggested, however, that the following provision be added to the bill: "Provided, That this exemption shall apply only to a ground for exclusion of which the Department of State or the Department of Justice has knowledge prior to the enactment of this Act." Sincerely, Commissioner. MEMORANDUM OF INFORMATION FROM IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE FILES RE LYDIA L. A. SAMRANEY, BENEFICIARY OF S. 1323 Lydia L. A. Samraney was born at Bad Bramstedt, Germany, on July 4, 1923, and is a citizen of Germany. She was married to Sgt. Joseph M. Samraney on June 4, 1950, at Hamburg, Germany. Shortly after his marriage, Sergeant Samraney submitted a petition for issuance of an immigration visa in behalf of his wife. This was approved by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and forwarded to the Department of State. According to Sergeant Samraney, the issuance of an immigration visa was refused by the American Consul in Hamburg, Germany, because inquiry abroad had disclosed that his wife had been convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude. He does not know the exact charge placed against his wife but he believes it involved the taking of a dress from her employer, although the dress was later returned. He said that she was convicted in absentia at Lichtenstein, Saxony, Germany (Russian Zone) in 1947 and given a 4-months suspended sentence. He was informed by a consular officer that there was no bar to the issuance of an immigration visa other than the conviction mentioned. Joseph M. Samraney, who was born in Lebanon on August 15, 1913, derived United States citizenship through the naturalization of his father. His first marriage was terminated by divorce on February 11, 1949. He has served in the United States Army since 1942 and is now stationed in the United States. Senator Edward Martin, the author of the bill, has submitted the following additional information in connection with the case: Hon. EDWARD MARTIN, United States Senate. DEPARTMENT of State, Washington, August 31, 1951. MY DEAR SENATOR MARTIN: Reference is made to the Department's letter addressed to you on July 26, 1951, concerning the desire of Cpl. Joseph M. Samraney to have his wife, Mrs. Lydia L. A. Samraney, come to the United States. A communication has now been received from the American consulate general at Hamburg stating that the records of that office show that Mrs. Samraney was formally refused an immigration visa on the basis of the fact that she has been found to be excludable from admission into the United States under the provisions of section 3 of the Immigration Act of February 5, 1917, as amended, as a person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, namely theft. In this connection it may be explained stealing, usually referred to as petty larceny or theft, has been held to constitute an offense involving moral turpitude within the meaning of this provision of the law. In the light of this provision of law and as section 2 (f) of the Immigration Act of 1924 provides that no immigration visa shall be issued an immigrant who consular officers know or have reason to believe is inadmissible into the United States under the immigration laws, the consul had no choice other than to refuse the issuance of a visa to Mrs. Samraney. Sincerely yours, H. J. L'HEUREUX, JUNE 9, 1951. Senator EDWARD MARTIN, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: I have written to you once before, sometime in October 1950, asking your help in using your good office in expediting the granting of a nonquota visa to my wife Lydia L. A. Scholze Samraney, from Hamburg, Germany, to come to the United States of America. Sir, you have contacted the American consul in Hamburg on behalf of my wife and his answer to you which you forwarded to me in Korea was favorable, in which he stated that he will do everything possible to hasten the issuance of her visa, but since then the sweet music has now changed into a sour note. Sir, I also have written, telegraphed and telephoned to the American consul in Hamburg, Germany, in his answer to me by letter, he contradicted what some of his subordinates in his office advised me when I was in Hamburg last June 1950, on my 60-days leave. My leave began May 5 to July 5 and 15 days extension. I landed back in the States July 24. While I was in Hamburg, the consul advised me, after my wife filed the questionnaires, and I filed the application for visa, which his office noted, to stop in Washington, D. C., on my way to Fort Hood and have the application approved by the Immigration, Naturalization Department and the Department of State, which I did accordingly, and the approved application was sent to him by telegram. As yet my wife has not received her visa, and my wife's latest letter to me told me that she got the application back unapproved. In the following paragraphs, I will state the reason for the disapproval of my wife's visa according to the consul answer to my inquiries. Sir, first I wrote to the consul from Korea, in October, asking him for the cause of delay in the issuance of my wife's visa. He replied to me as follows: The reason for the delay, he states, is because in March 1945, just before the war ended, my wife was employed by a rich Nazi lady in Lichtenstein, Saxony, Germany, at the end of the month the lady refused to pay my wife for her labor, so my wife in need of her earning to buy some clothes and to pay for her travel back home to Hamburg, she took and wore one of the lady's dresses, of which she had many. I say again, my wife took the dress, did not steal it. She took it. First, because she had it coming to her and the second, and most important, she took it from necessity not habit. Well, the lady reported to the police and told them that my wife stole one of her dresses, the lady being influential and rich Nazi Party member in the town and so was the police at that time and my wife and her family was not so they convicted my wife and sentenced her to 4 weeks in jail, but they had to suspend the sentence because the war was coming to an end rapidly. Therefore, my wife did not serve any time in jail. My wife told me all this the very first day I met her in March 1946. While I was on my leave in Hamburg last summer, I asked some of the consul subordinates before I filed the petition for my wife's visa if this conviction will hinder the granting of the visa to my wife. Their answer was in the negative and yet in his letter to me, he called my wife's conviction a moral turpitude. Sir, I am not asking you to try to change the law of the land to suit my individual case, all I am asking is fairness and justice, not prejudice. Sir, I am not a rich man, I cannot hire a lawyer to contest this case, I don't believe, sir, that money and might should make things right without the truth and the commonsense consideration of the individual rights to life and happiness. I think that is the reason we are shedding our blood on the battlefields to preserve these rights. Sir, I love my wife more than life, by denying her the visa they are destroying two human lives, hers and mine. Lives can be destroyed in more ways than one, such as this immigration law which I believe should not have any bearing on the granting my wife a visa. Please sir, consider the time, the place, the conditions and the situation my wife and the whole continent of Europe was in. If on account of that one sided prejudiced Nazi law which we fought to free the people of, if my wife is to be |