The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

would foster “enmity and suspicion” that would be disruptive to American society and
life. 43
Democratic Senator Robert R. Reynolds, North Carolina, opposed any loosening
or modification of U.S. immigration laws and blamed an “enormous alien influx” during
the Great War and in the post-war period as being the root of widespread American
worker unemployment. “Excess alien baggage” had led to “burdensome taxation,” rising
national debt, a budget deficit and the importation of “subversive” ideologies and
activities. 44 Reynolds called for slashing the current immigration quotas by ninety
percent for at least ten years until rampant American unemployment was resolved. Any
aliens committing a crime within U.S. borders must be deported and non-citizens barred
from organizing or heading labor organizations. The Government for its part should
cease employing noncitizens, all immigration laws should be rigidly enforced and
America must be protected from the “importation of inferior human stock.” 45
Republican Congressman Karl Stefan criticized an amendment submitted to the
House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization that supported the Evian
Conference, describing it as “the most dangerous piece of legislation” that risked
American involvement in “foreign entanglements.” The Evian Committee would serve
as a replacement for the failed League of Nations transforming the United States into the
43 Rep. Thomas J. Jenkins, Congressional Record, Seventy-Fifth Congress, 3 rd sess., vol. 83, part 4,
March 28, 1938 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1938), 4227.
44 Sen. Robert R. Reynolds, “Displacement of Americans by Aliens,” Congressional Record Appendix,
Seventy-Fifth Congress, 3 rd sess., vol. 9, March 14, 1938 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1938), 989-990.
45 Sen. Robert R. Reynolds, “Deportation of Aliens,” Congressional Record Appendix, Seventy-Fifth
Congress, 3 rd sess., vol. 9, March 24, 1938 (Washington, D.C.: GPO,1938), 1170-1171. Reynolds (June 18,
1884-February 13, 1963) served in the Senate from 1932-1945.
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