Part III, Immigration Story, Tuesday May 27, 1952, New York Herald Tribune

New York Herald Tribune, Tuesday May 27, 1952

World Ring Forging Passports Helps Smuggle Aliens Into U.S.

From Hong Kong to Naples Bogus Documents Are Sold as First Step to Entering Promised Land
This is the last of three articles on a widespread racket in smuggling aliens into the United States.
By David McConnell
WASHINGTON, May 26. – An organized international traffic in forged or altered passports which aliens use to obtain a visa to enter the United States is flourishing abroad, according to unpublished reports of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The reports say that in some cases foreign passports “have been stolen in blank and trafficked commercially to be filled in as required by the purchaser.” In other cases, they assert, aliens have obtained American birth certificates through the use of forged documents.
The forging, it was learned today, is tied closely with international smuggling rings whose methods of operations take various forms. One example is the operation of an agency in Bombay which, according to reliable sources, sends agents into the villages of Pakistan and India to sell young men on the advantages of making money in the United States.

“School” in Hong Kong

Another group in Hong Kong conducted a school to train Chinese to claim they are the sons or daughters of Chinese-Americans who have agreed to participate in the racket. Candidates are drilled in the family background and names of relatives of the Chinese-Americans so they can face close questioning by Immigration Agents when they arrive here.
When the Bombay agency has sold a Pakistani or Indian on the idea of coming to the United States, it either takes a $1500 mortgage on his farm or home or accepts notes for a like amount from parents or relatives, informed sources say. Usually, to raise the sum, both a mortgage and notes are required.
In most cases, the alien either is smuggled in as a stowaway or is furnished seaman’s papers, often forged, and is instructed how to jump ship when he arrives at an American port. Seamen who clear security barriers are permitted to stay in the country twenty-nine days, or until their ship leaves.
Often work as Laborers
Once they have successfully slipped into the country, Pakistani aliens usually go to San Francisco, Detroit or New York to work as laborers or on farms. In New York, they are known to live up to twelve to a room, sleeping in shifts and cooking their own meals to keep cost down and save money.
On the other side of the world, smuggling rings are reported operating in such Italian ports such as Naples and Livorno. Immigration reports in the possession of Congress show that Antonio Palazzolo, of Detroit, paid 700,00 (sic) lire – more than $1000 at today’s rates – to be smuggled into the country as a stowaway, in June 1949.
Almost a year after his entry, he was arrested by Immigration authorities and ordered deported, but at the request of attorneys for the Legal Aid Society and other groups in Detroit, Rep. Thaddeus Machrowicz , D., Mich., introduced a private bill seeking to stay his deportation and give him legal status in the United States. Rep. Machrowicz said he did not know of the 700,000 lire payment, but introduced the bill because Mr. Palazzolo had been told in Italy that once here he could have his status adjusted. Rep. Machrowicz said his policy is not to adjust the status of persons here illegally unless he is furnished affidavits from citizens and organizations certifying that a case has special merits.
Most illegal aliens have two objectives once they slip into the country, Immigration experts say. The first is to make as much money as possible and the second is to avoid deportation for seven years in the hope of qualifying to stay under a provision of the present immigration laws which give aliens legal status in some cases if they have been here seven or more years.

Smuggled in Savannah

Czeslaw Laskowski, thirty-two, of Chicago, was smuggled through Savannah, Ga., in February, 1946, according to Congressional records. He was arrested in 1951, but deportation was stopped when Rep. Thomas S. Gordon, D., Ill., introduced a private bill. Rep. Gordon explained that Mr. Laskowski, from Poland feared persecution by the communists if he is sent back. For that reason and because he was highly recommended by Polish organizations in Chicago, Rep. Gordon said he introduced the private bill.
Reports on Mr. Laskowski show that he had more than $2,200 in cash he had saved while working as an engraver at $78 a week. Rep. Katharine St. George, R., said she used the private bill method to keep Man Kui-ling, operator of a hotel food concession in Middleton, N.Y., in the country long enough for him to qualify under the seven-year provision. She said he was “highly regarded” and feared deportation because of the Communists in China. He came in as a seaman in 1942 and was picked up in 1944. Since then he has managed to avoid deportation.