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ALIEN SEAMEN AND STOWAWAYS.

ALIEN SEAMEN.

The problem of alien seamen is one of the most annoying and perplexing with which the immigration authorities have to deal. Because of the necessities of commerce and navigation alien seamen are not within the operation of the immigration law controlling the admission of aliens into the United States. They are not subject to the rules governing the manifesting of incoming immigrants nor to the provisions requiring an inspection of such immigrants by the immigration officials. After the vessel has docked, the alien seaman may go on shore on business for the ship, or to take the shore leave to which he is entitled, without undergoing any inspection by the immigration authorities, and with no power on their part to exclude him, even though he may be suffering from a loathsome or contagious disease, or be a criminal or a person likely to become a public charge, or come within any other of the excluded classes of aliens. Once on shore he may do as he wishes; he may return to the ship or he may not. If he neither returns nor reships on some other vessel, and is an alien coming within one of the excluded classes, he is, of course, liable to deportation. Practically, however, he is beyond the reach of the immigration officials. Masters of vessels no longer furnish the immigration authorities with lists of deserting seamen, and there is no provision of law under which they may be compelled to do so. The alien's chances of discovery are, therefore, comparatively slight. Moreover, even when discovered and arrested the owner of the vessel is not liable for the expenses of the alien's deportation, nor for the head tax on his account, unless the master or other officer of the ship knew of his intention to desert and failed to notify the immigration authorities or to take the necessary precautions to prevent his landing.

The authorities at every important port where alien seamen land are convinced that a large proportion of deserting seamen are persons who would be excluded from landing under our immigration laws; that is, are persons who have adopted this means of entering the country in order to escape inspection, either because they are criminals, are suffering from a loathsome or contagious disease, are likely to become public charges, or for some other reason would be refused admission. This loophole in the immigration law has been repeatedly pointed out in the reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. The following extracts from these reports for the years 1905-1909 show the seriousness of the situation as viewed from the standpoint of the immigration authorities:

[Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1905, p. 77.] Legislation should be adopted to check violations of the immigration laws by professed seamen, thus taking advantage of their status acquired under one law to escape the operation of another. Such legislation should impose a suffi

cient penalty upon masters of vessels for signing other than bona fide seamen upon their crew lists, thus enabling such pretended seamen to enter this country without the examination made of all other aliens by simply deserting after arrival at our ports. Masters of vessels should be required to notify inspection officials upon arrival and before departure from ports of this country, so that such officers may be able to ascertain whether aliens brought thereon have departed, if inadmissible to the United States. The master should also be held accountable for any alien seaman brought by them who, he is informed by an immigrant inspector, should be retained on board as an inadmissible alien, as they are for the escape of alien passengers denied a landing.

[Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1906, p. 57.]

The alien seaman constitutes another rather anomalous class that is a source of much difficulty and embarrassment, because of the facility with which such class can escape the operation of the immigration laws by taking advantage of a status acquired under the navigation laws. The danger attaching to the situation was described in the bureau's report for 1905 (p. 77). Another year's experience but confirms and emphasizes the need for legislation of the character then recommended. Approximately, 8,500 alien seamen have deserted from vessels arriving in ports of this country during the fiscal year 1906. That many, perhaps a majority, of them-particularly of such as were bona fide seamenimmediately reshipped on other vessels is not doubted. How many so reship can not be stated, or even approximated, with any degree of certainty, but that many others of these deserters did not reship, and that a large number of them were not bona fide seamen, but were aliens who had been engaged abroad as seamen for the express purpose of evading examination under the immigration laws and effecting an entry into this country despite the existence in their cases of dangerous or loathsome contagious diseases or other causes for rejection, is clearly indicated by evidence obtained both in the United States and in foreign countries.

[Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1907, p. 57.]

In the enforcement of the immigration and Chinese-exclusion laws no more embarrassing question is presented than that of handling seamen so as to prevent evasions of those laws and at the same time not interfere with the commercial and shipping interests of the country. From its experience of another year the bureau is more convinced than ever that the guise of a seaman is frequently employed to effect the entry into this country of aliens who are ineligible by reason of disease or some other cause. The bureau is disappointed that no provision was inserted in the new law to cover this matter, for it had hoped the recommendation contained in its report for 1905 (p. 77) and reiterated in its last report (p. 57) might be adopted. In the absence of any specific and direct provision of law it is a task of magnitude to attempt to handle successfully this delicate subject, but it is imperative that the opportunity for violation of the law in this connection shall be guarded. The extent of the opportunity is demonstrated by the number of alien seamen who have deserted from vessels arriving * * * at ports of this country during the fiscal year 1907 aggregating 9,616. Undoubtedly a vast majority of these were bona fide seamen, regularly and permanently enlisted in that calling, and concerning whom, therefore, it is reasonable to assume that after deserting one vessel they reshipped on another and left the country. How many of the said number were bona fide seamen who reshipped is not known, and therefore the exact extent to which violations of the immigration laws have thus occurred can not be stated. But the bureau is certain, from its experience with this matter, that the violations are considerable. In preparing regulations under the new immigration law a rule which has been in force for several years has been readopted with certain modifications. (See rule 22, "Immigration Laws and Regulations of July 1, 1907.") Every effort will be made in the future, as in the past, to enforce this regulation, which seems the best that can be adopted in the present state of the law. But it is a makeshift at the most, and there should be some direct authority given by statute to enable the officers of this service successfully to cope with the situation.

a For present rule see pp. 758-761 of this volume.

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[Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1908, pp. 10 and 159.]

One of the subjects discussed by the bureau with the committee of the Trans-Atlantic Passenger Conferences was the desertion of alien seamen in the ports of this country. The object of the discussion was to discover some means by which the difficulties heretofore met on this score, and described in detail in several of the bureau's recent reports, might be overcome without unduly interfering with navigation and commerce. A decision rendered by the Supreme Court early in the year (Taylor v. United States; 207 U. S. 120), both by reason of what it actually did announce with respect to alien seamen and their status under the immigration law, and what it did not, but was widely reported to hold on that subject, has rendered the task of preventing violations of law by aliens employed on board vessels more trying than ever. Finally, after lengthy discussion, a circular (Department Circular, 167) was drawn by the solicitor, with the assistance of the bureau, in which a plan for the inspection of alien seamen is outlined in alternative form, one line of inspection being detailed in character and intended to be applied in the cases of vessels belonging to companies which do not agree to abide by the other line of inspection, which is of a much less detailed and burdensome character and is intended to apply to such lines as do agree to observe in good faith certain requirements concerning their crews, among which is the making of a careful medical examination at the time of shipment, and thus relieve the immigration officials of the necessity of making a minute inspection in the ports of this country. To one feature of this circular, however, many of the lines have refused to submit, viz, that requiring the payment of head tax on alien seamen who desert unless the company owning the vessel from which the desertion occurs is able to show that the deserter subsequently left the country by reshipping on some other vessel or otherwise. To test the validity of this requirement a suit has been brought in New York, and incidentally such suit will probably test the validity of the entire circular. Employment on board transoceanic vessels affords so easy a means of evading the law that no thoroughly effective regulation of immigration can be enforced unless the loophole is closed, and the bureau is much in hopes that the suit may result favorably to the Government." A report submitted on June 5, 1908, by Inspector Marcus Braun, detailed abroad to investigate this matter, shows that in some European ports, particularly in the Mediterranean, a regular and extensive system exists whereunder, often with the assistance and connivance for pay of officers of vessels, aliens who have been refused passage on account of being afflicted with loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases are signed on as employees of the vessel with the understanding that they will desert in ports of this country. **** * during the year 12,974 alien seamen deserted in the ports of this country; and while of these, as of the 9,616 who deserted in the preceding year, doubtless the majority were bona fide seamen who eventually reshipped and left the country in that calling, the possibilities for violation by this means are thereby shown to be too extensive to be neglected. Hence the bureau's anxiety to see the regulation upheld.

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Seamen of the Chinese race to the number of approximately 30,000 have entered ports of the United States during the past year, and it has been no small part of the duties of the immigration officials at such ports to guard against their permanent stay in the country. This special feature of the alien seaman question is doubly important, because both the immigration and exclusion laws are violated by seamen of the Chinese race. While probably it was the expectation of the lawmakers, in the first instance, that under the Chinese-exclusion law (secs. 9 and 10, act of Sept. 13, 1888) no seamen of that race should be allowed to enter the ports of this country unless under the most urgent necessity, the practice almost immediately grew up, and has been con

• United States v. International Mercantile Marine Co., 172 Fed., 841; decided adversely to the Government by circuit court of appeals, second circuit, June 15, 1909:

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'Immigration act, February 20, 1907 (ch. 1134, sec. 1, 34 Stat., 898), imposing a head tax on immigrants, which shall be a debt against the owner of the vessel bringing such alien into the United States, does not render such owner liable for the tax upon an alien seaman who deserted after reaching this country, in the absence of any evidence that the officers of the vessel had reason to suppose that the seaman made the voyage with the intention of so gaining admission, or that such intention in fact existed."

tinued until the present time, of making no further restrictions in this respect than to require such steamships as allow Chinese seamen to go ashore in ports of this country to furnish bond conditioned for their departure; and, while the law imposes a penalty against a master who allows a Chinese laborer to escape into the country, it is difficult, as the statute is drawn, to obtain a conviction in such a case, so that the law thus becomes of little effect."

[Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1909, p. 13.] Table XX * # is a compilation of figures furnished by the officials in charge at the various seaports, covering alien seamen reported by masters of vessels as having deserted. These figures are known to be far from accurate; in fact, the similar table in last year's report, showing a total of 13,235 desertions for the year 1908 against a total of 5,839 for the past year, was not regarded as a correct statement. During the past year it has been almost impossible to obtain from the steamship lines any information regarding deserters. The decision of the Supreme Court in the Taylor case (207 U. S., 120), and the fact that there has been pending for some time a suit in which the Government undertook to enforce the payment of head tax on account of deserting seamen and in which a district court rendered an adverse decision, have tended to encourage on the part of the lines a noncompliance with the provisions of rule 22 of the immigration regulations. This loophole in the immigration law is proving more and more serious as time passes. The matter has now reached a stage where no permanent relief need be expected from any other source than new legislation.

The closely related subject of Chinese seamen should also be mentioned at this point. During the year it has been necessary to guard against the entry of approximately 35,000 such seamen who have come into our ports on merchant vessels.

In the fall of 1907 the Commission engaged Mr. S. A. Eppler, of New York, to make a study of this question of deserting seamen and to obtain, as far as possible, accurate information concerning the number of aliens securing admittance to the United States under the guise of seamen. In this connection Mr. Eppler was also directed to report upon the number of alien stowaways found on board vessels arriving at the various ports of the United States and upon the methods employed to control the landing of such aliens. The investigation was carried on for a period of four months, and covered the principal Atlantic and Gulf ports-New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Key West, Tampa, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, and Galveston.

DESERTING ALIEN SEAMEN.

At the time of the investigation there was in force at the various ports of the country a rule of the Bureau of Immigration making it the duty of masters of vessels to report to the immigration authorities, on a blank form furnished for that purpose, the name and description of every deserting alien seaman. Although the decision

"Unless the identity of the sailor is fully established by the immigration authorities opportunities are thus afforded for Chinese who wish to return to China and Chinese laborers who wish to enter the United States to effect an arrangement by which, through a temporary exchange of names, the wishes of both may be carried out without the knowledge and against the will of the immigration authorities. It has been reported that such exchanges have at times been made, the incoming Chinaman paying a considerable sum to his compatriot who wished to return home. Definite proof of such exchanges has not been furnished to the Commission, but the lack of careful inspection of Chinese sailors clearly affords another opportunity for evasion of the Chineseexclusion law.

See footnote on preceding page.

See Appendix I, p. 368.

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