Present Aspects of Immigration 



69 



percentage of rejections during the war 

 is to be ascribed, according to the Com- 

 missioner General, to two causes : first, 

 a deterioration in the quahty of immi- 

 gration itself ; and second, to the more 

 rigid inspection made possible by the 

 decreased numbers. One of the pro- 

 visions of the new Immigration Act re- 

 quires that two inspection officers shall, 

 whenever practicable, pass upon the 

 case of each alien, and the same is 

 true of the medical inspection. It is 

 interesting to note that 23% of the 

 total nimiber of all rejections for the 

 year 1918 were due to the operation of 

 new provisions in the Act of P'ebruary 

 5, 1917. Among those rejected because 

 of such new provisions there were 20 

 certified for chronic psychopathic in- 

 feriority; 24 chronic alcoholics; 17 

 afflicted with "tuberculosis in any form" 

 as distinguished from tuberculosis of 

 the respiratory, intestinal or urinary 

 tracts, these being excludable under the 

 old law ; 10 aliens mentally defective 

 W'ithout regard to the effect of such 

 defect upon the ability to earn a living. 

 In addition to the foregoing, debarred 

 under new provisions, there were de- 

 barred under provisions contained in 

 both the old and new laws, 4 idiots, 5 

 imbeciles, 64 insane, 31 epileptics, and 

 19 feeble-minded. That even the new 

 law does not accomplish all that is de- 

 sirable is shown by the fact that, in 

 1918, out of 6,153 aliens certified by 

 the surgeons as mentally or physically 

 defective. 4,558, or 74.1%, were landed. 

 In 1917, 71.4% were landed. 



An excellent provision of the new 

 Immigration Act is the extension of the 

 period during which the expulsion of 

 defective aliens can be accomplished. 

 In the past year 106 aliens suffering 

 from serious mental defects were ex- 

 pelled from the country. Of this num- 

 ber, 17 were so afflicted when they were 

 originally admitted. 78 became insane 

 within five years after landing, and 11 

 became public charges because of other 

 mental defects. In the previous year, 

 172 aliens suffering from serious men- 

 tal defects were expelled. Of these, 38 

 had been so afflicted at the time of en- 



try and 130 had become public charges 

 within three years after entry because 

 of insanity. 



In the last Report of this Committee, 

 attention was called to the great im- 

 portance of the proposed increase in 

 the fines to be levied on the transporta- 

 tion companies in cases where aliens, 

 clearly excludable under the law, are 

 brought to this country. These in- 

 creased fines are now embodied in the 

 new Immigration Act. It is obviously 

 a very great hardship on individual 

 aliens who have made the long journey 

 to this country to turn them back at our 

 ports when they are found to belong 

 in the excluded classes. Such cases are 

 often reported in our newspapers, 

 naturally arouse widespread sentimen- 

 tal interest, and usually bring out un- 

 reasonable and ill-judged protests 

 against any rigid enforcement of the 

 Immigration Act. Experience has 

 shown that the only way to diminish 

 the number of such cases of hardship 

 is to levy considerable fines upon the 

 steamship companies when they give 

 passage to aliens who, on embarkation, 

 clearly fall into the excluded classes 

 which are named in the law. The new 

 Immigration Act increases the fines in 

 cases where they were already provided 

 and established new fines in other cases. 

 During the past fiscal year, a total of 

 $63,515 was collected in such fines. Of 

 this amount, $7,325 was levied because 

 of the bringing to our ports of mentally 

 or physically diseased aliens. A rigid 

 medical inspection of all arriving aliens, 

 and the collection of fines in all cases 

 where such fines can clearly be im- 

 posed would certainly do a very great 

 deal, under the excellent provisions of 

 the present law, to improve the mental 

 and physical qualities of our immi- 

 grants. That much more could be done 

 under the administrative fine provisions 

 is shown by the fact that, while 954 

 aliens were debarred as being physi- 

 cally or mentally diseased or defective, 

 fines were imposed for bringing only 

 93 of these. 



If any further arguments were needed 

 to show the value and importance of 



