Timed Protest

The recent attack, signed by thirty-four atomic scientiste, on the McCarren Internal Security Law was well timed. The Presidential Committee investigating American Immigration Policy is ending a nation-wide tour, and it is important to impress the Committee with the inadequacies and dangers of existing policies.

During six months under the McCarran Immigration and Security Laws, abridgments of individual liberty have occurred in alarming numbers. The scientists list twenty-six cases in which laws and "their excessively rigid and indiscriminate application" have harmed American scientific advancement.

And abuses of liberty have not been confined to this field. In the Latva incident, for example, Judge Wyzanski of the United States Federal Court ordered the deportation of a man who once gave ninety cents to the Communist Party. The court stated that, despite the hardship involved, the McCarran Law left no choice in the ruling.

In the application of other parts of the laws there is an even greater weakness--wide powers of arbitrary decision for individual immigration officials and the Attorney General. And while the law allows these men to decide whether or not to admit immigrants or visitors, it lacks provisions for appeal of these judgments.

Abuses similar to those cited by the scientists will continue to occur until the Congress changes the laws. And statements pointing out specific instances of the laws' damaging effects will help the Presidential Committee gather enough evidence to influence these changes.