424 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION
MEXICAN IMMIGRATION—A REPORT BY ROY I. GARIS FOR THE
INFORMATION OF THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

DrcEMBER, 1929.

Hon. Joun C. Box, M. C.
Hon. THoMass A. Jenkins, M. C.
Sirs: I submit herewith my report upon Mexican immigration which embodies
the result of my studies undertaken in the course of 1929, at your request, in order
that you might have for presentation in the course of the present session of Congress,
 a body of material which might serve for the information of Members of
Congress, in reaching a determination as to the advisability of placing Spanish-America
 under a quota system.
Very respectfully,

Roy L. Garis.

A study of the problem of immigration from the nonquota countries of the
Western Hemisphere divides itself logically into a study of its racial, social, and
economic effects.
Abraham Lincoln once said that “this country could not endure half slave and
half free.” When one considers the present effects of immigration from the
countries to the south of us, especially from Mexico, he is forced by the logic of
developments to conclude that the United States ean not endure part citizen
and part foreign. We reached such a conclusion several years ago relative to
European and oriental immigration when we put European immigration on the
quota basis and excluded all oriental immigration by declaring it to be our policy
not to admit as immigrants any persons ineligible for citizenship.
We barred the gate to Europe and closed the door to Asia, but the entrance to
the South has remained open. The restrictive program is thereby virtually
nullified, for to admit peons from Mexico and similar types of immigrants from
the other non-quota countries while restricting European and excluding oriental
immigration is not only ridiculous and illogical—it destroys the biological, social,
and economic advantages to be secured from the restriction of immigration.
The Commissioner General of Immigration has declared in a recent report:
“I can not reconcile the unlimited flow of immigrants from the Western Hemisphere
 with the sharp curtailment of immigrants from Europe.” The Secretary of
Labor is of the opinion that “The limitation of European immigration has clearly
proved to be a long step toward an economically sound balance between the labor
demand and supply, but it seems obvious that such a goal can not be fully established
 and permanently maintained so long as there are nearby sources from
which millions of immigrants may come at any time they may choose to do go.”
It does seem queer, as Edward M. East has written on “Heredity and Human
Affairs,” that “our worthy Congressmen should not be able to see that by failing
bo place all eountries under quota they have diverted the source of the immigrant
stream from Europe to South America, Central America, Mexico, and the West
Indies. During the last quarter of a century 135,000 negroes have been admitted
bo this country, most of them from the West Indies.”
In November, 1927, the Business Men's Commission on Agriculture, the
chairman of which was Mr. Charles Nagel, of St. Louis, published a report:
“The condition of agriculture in the United States and measures for its improvement.”
 This commission was appointed by the National Industrial Conference
Board (Inc.), and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America.
On page 93 the commission states:
“If restriction of immigration is to be our accepted policy, then it should rest
upon the test of merit and not be determined by the accident of geographical
division. Mere distance in the separation of countries has been conquered by
invention. Our relation to some countries far removed is more close than it is
to others near by. A broad and generous policy would seem at least to welcome
those newcomers who may promise to become an integral part of our institutions,
and who are perhaps perculiarly endowed to follow the one great pursuit which is
now the subject of our particular concern.”
Having thus expressed themselves in favor of a liberal immigration policy,
there then follows this statement: “From this point of view it may be seriously
questioned whether the exemption from quota restriction of immigrants from
American countries was wise or desirable. There is a standard of labor from
Mexico, most of which enters agriculture—especially cotton production, sugar
beet growing, and the raising of fruits and vegetables. From the point of view
of the farmer employing this labor this movement is immediately advantageous,
but it clearly tends to lower the returns of competing native producers and