Part II of III, Immigration Story, New York Herald Tribune, Monday, May 26, 1952, Langer Defends Private Bills To Aid Aliens Illegally in U.S.

New York Herald Tribune, Monday, May 26, 1952

Langer Defends Private Bills To Aid Aliens Illegally in U.S.

“3d Senator From N.Y.” Traces Interest in Problem to Time He Headed Immigration Subcommittee

This is the second of three articles on a widespread racket in smuggling aliens into the United States.

By David McConnell

WASHINGTON, May 25.- Sen. William Langer, R., N.D. who has introduced more than twice as many private immigration bills as any other member of Congress ,, explained today he had done so because in 1947 and 1948 he headed a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over Ellis Island.

Sen. Langer is sometimes referred to as the “third Senator from New York” because of his penchant for introducing bills for persons in that area.

Congressional records show he introduced 295 bills containing more than 1,000 names from 1947 through 1951 and during the present session has put in or reintroduced 130 measures. The next highest number by a single senator is sixty. Runners-up have introduced forty-one and thirty-nine. Many have introduced only one or two.

Senator Langer surrendered the Chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on penitentiaries, which has jurisdiction of Ellis Island, when the Democrats regained control of Congress in 1949. However, he remained as a member and has continued to introduce private immigration bills or reintroduce measures which had died or been killed by the Judiciary Committee in previous sessions.

Introduction of a private bill in the Senate automatically brings a stay of deportation for an alien until the Senate Judiciary Committee kills the bill.

Sen. Langer explained his interest in introducing private bills in a reply to questions sent to him in North Dakota, where he is campaigning for renomination in the Republican Senatorial primary June 24. Opposing him is Rep. Fred G. Aandahl, R., one of North Dakota’s two Representatives at large.

In his reply Sen. Langer said:

1. “It was because I was chairman of the subcommittee that I introduced more private bills than any other Senator.” He said representatives on Ellis Island of the Catholic Welfare League, the Lutheran Welfare League and other organizations would report meritorious cases to him. He would interview the individual and introduce a private bill if convinced the case was good. He said most Senators know little about Ellis Island, so he introduced the bills instead of referring them to the Senator of the individual’s home state.

Doesn’t Press Bills

2. Once he had introduced a bill, he said, he made no effort to press it. He said the Immigration subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee makes a complete investigation and gets Federal Bureau of Investigation reports. Most of the bills introduced by Sen. Langer at this session have been killed by the Judiciary Committee on recommendations from the subcommittee.

3. He introduced one blanket bill for 207 persons held on Ellis Island in 1947. At his insistence, he said, Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark, then Attorney General, had appointed a committee to screen aliens held on the island. After two screenings fifty-seven were found to be Nazis and Communists while the 207 he sponsored were cleared, he said. Sen. Langer said he had urged the screening because when he first went to Ellis Island as chairman of the subcommittee he found “hundreds” of persons, many of whom had been held there for years, awaiting deportation. Most had been picked up during World War II.

4. He made no direct reply to a question asking him to elaborate on the fact that some bills he introduced in 1947 to stay deportations were for former Nazis and former German American Bundists. At the time he defended the bills on grounds he felt the Constitutional rights of those involved had been violated. By indirection his answer suggested the former Nazis and former members of the German American Bund were included on the screened list of 209 aliens he supported.

5. He disagreed with the fears of some immigration authorities that the introduction of private bills tends to encourage the alien smuggling racket. He said: “There have been some charges to the effect and the most serious one involved the Pakistani. Last February I made a thorough investigation of that in the State of California and became entirely satisfied from that investigation that that charge is not true.”

6. About the same time he was making his west coast investigation, Sen. Langer withdrew a series of bills seeking to stay deportation of more that seventy-five Pakistani seaman who jumped ship in this country. He asserted he had introduced the measures because he had been told the seamen feared they would be executed if they returned home. At the time, he said, Pakistan was being organized in India and there was trouble between the Moslems and the Hindus.

As differentiated from seamen who have jumped ship, Sen. Langer said he refused to introduce bills for stowaways, except for “orphaned boys” who have smuggled themselves into the United States. He said: I have admired the grit of the young boys who would have the ingenuity and the enterprise to do that.”

Despite the number of measures he has sponsored, Sen. Langer said he agreed with other members of Congress in their dislike of adjusting the status of aliens illegally in this country. For every person successful in obtaining approval of a private bill a point is charged against the quota of the country they come from.

Members of Congress have protested that this means those waiting for a legal means of immigrating here are penalized.

In outlining his general approach to the private-bill question, Sen. Langer said, that whenever he believes an individual case is good he introduces a bill. He added: “I believe you will find upon investigation that sometimes various charges are made that some alien is a Communist when in truth the alien is only a person believing in progressive ideas or working for the betterment of mankind,”

(A third article will appear tomorrow.)