GRO WATE COMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION HIRAM W. JOHNSON, California, Chairman HENRY W. KEYES, New Hampshire. GERALD P. NYE, North Dakota. WILLIAM H. KING, Utah. W. H. KILLAM, Clerk II DEPORTATION OF CERTAIN ALIEN SEAMEN THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1926 UNITED STATES SENATE, The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10.30 o'clock a. m., in the committee rooms, Capitol, Senator Hiram W. Johnson, presiding. Present: Senators Johnson (chairman), Keyes, Reed of Pennsylvania, Means, Nye, and Harris. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. Originally this meeting was called primarily for the purpose of considering Senate bill 3574, introduced by Senator King, and also Senate resolution 167, introduced by the Senator, which relates to conditions upon the border of Mexico, and which asks of the Senate an investigation by the Committee on Immigration. Senator King has just come in here and stated he is the ranking Democratic member upon the Elections Committee, by which the Brookhart election contest is to be decided this morning; that he feels that matter to be one of such privilege that it is his duty to be at that meeting, and he asked, therefore, that the consideration of his resolution be continued until to-morrow morning, but that we proceed with the hearing on the bill, those who sponsor and those who oppose it being present. So, if there be no objection, we will go ahead with a brief hearing upon Senate bill 3574. (The committee thereupon proceeded to the consideration of S. 3574, which is as follows:) [S. 3574, Sixty-ninth Congress, first session] A BILL To provide for the deportation of certain alien seamen, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this act may be cited as the "alien seamen act of 1926." SEC. 2. Every alien employed on board of any vessel arriving in the United States from any place outside thereof shall be examined by an immigration inspector to determine whether or not he (1) is a bona fide seaman, and (2) is an alien of the class described in section 7 of this act; and by a surgeon of the United States Public Health Service to determine (3) whether or not he is suffering with any of the disabilities of diseases specified in section 35 of the immigration act of 1917. SEC. 3. If it is found that such alien is not a bona fide seaman, he shall be regarded as an immigrant and immediately removed from the vessel to an immigration station; and the various provisions of this act and of the immigration laws applicable to immigrants shall be enforced in his case. From a decision holding such alien not to be a bona fide seaman the alien shall be entitled to appeal to the Secretary of Labor, and on the question of his admissibility as an immigrant he shall be entitled to appeal to said Secretary, except where exclusion is based upon 1 grounds nonappealable under the immigration laws. If found inasmissible, such alien shall be deported, as a passenger, on a vessel other than that by which brought, at the expense of the vessel by which brought, and the vessel by which brought shall not be granted clearance until such expenses are paid or their payment satisfactorily guaranteed. SEC. 4. If it is found that such alien is subject to exclusion under section 7 of this act, the inspector shall immediately remove such alien to an immigration station and such alien shall then be deported in accordance with the provisions of said section 7. SEC. 5. If it is found that, although a bona fide seaman, such alien is afflicted with any of the disabilities or diseases specified in section 35 of the immigration act of 1917, disposition shall be made of his case in accordance with the provisions of the act approved December 26, 1920, entitled "An act to provide for the treatment in hospital of diseased alien seamen." SEC. 6. All vessels entering ports of the United States manned with crews the majority of which, exclusive of licensed officers, have been engaged and taken on at foreign ports shall, when departing from the United States ports, carry a crew of at least equal number, and any such vessel which fails to comply with this requirement shall be refused clearance: Provided, however, That such vessel shall not be required when departing to carry in the crew any person to fill the p'ace made vacant by the death or hospitalization of any member of the incoming crew. SEC. 7. No vessel shall, unless such vessel is in distress, bring into a port of the United States as a member of her crew any alien who if he were applying for admission to the United States as an immigrant would be subject to exclusion under subdivision (c) of section 13 of the inimigration act of 1924, except that any ship of the merchant marine of any one of the countries, islands, dependencies, or colonies immigrants coming from which are excluded by the said provisions of law, shall be permitted to enter ports of the United States having on board in their crews aliens of said description who are natives of the particular country, island, dependency, or colony to the merchant marine of which such vessel belongs. Any alien seaman brought into a port of the United States in violation of this provision shall be excluded from admission or temporary landing and shall be deported either to the place of shipment or to the country of his nativity, as a passenger, on a vessel other than that on which brought, at the expense of the vessel by which brought, and the vessel by which brought shall not be granted clearance until such expenses are paid or their payment satisfactorily guaranteed. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Furuseth, I understood that you were the sponsor of the bill introduced by Senator King, and you may now make such statement as you desire in reference to it, please. STATEMENT OF ANDREW FURUSETH, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, NATIONAL SEAMAN'S UNION, NATIONAL HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. FURUSETH. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, there are about 1,000,000 seamen coming to the ports of the United States every year. Deducting the licensed officers who do not desert, and taking away the petty officers who very rarely desert, you have still between 400,000 and 500,000 men who are possible deserters or who may come into the country for 60 days under the law and according to the rules; and the result has been for many years now-it began in 1920 to some extent, but in 1921 after the quota law was passed it took final shape and it has gone on ever since, that the vessels came here with men who claim to be able seamen and who claim to be ordinary seamen and who are shipped on the other side as seamen, but who as a real practical matter are immigrants coming here in violation of the immigration laws. I first brought the matter to the attention of the then Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Alexander, in 1921, and he said that he thought they could make regulations dealing with it, but that after a while |