THE ENTRY OF FOREIGN CRIMINALS INTO THE UNITED STATES. In addition to the foregoing statistical study of immigrant criminality in the United States, an investigation was made of the entry into this country of immigrants having criminal records abroad. More than 500 cases were investigated in New York and some 70 penal certificates were secured from Italy. As a result of information furnished by the Commission a number of Italian criminals were deported. In fact, the first penal certificates, on which was founded the plan of securing such certificates on a large scale for use in deporting Italian criminals, were given to the New York police by the Immigration Commission. This plan, if carried out. thoroughly by the immigration authorities, will go far toward ridding the country of an extremely undesirable class. This special investigation has made it clear that the ranks of immigrant criminals in this country are recruited more or less from members of the same class abroad. It has shown that persons convicted abroad of crimes "involving moral turpitude" do enter the United States in violation of the statute of exclusion. But it has also brought out the fact that even under ideal conditions it would be impossible, without changing the existing law, to keep out of the country persons living on the borders of crime but unconvicted of any specific offense-immigrants against whom the present law is impotent and yet who are evidently highly undesirable. has also been made clear that too great barriers are placed in the way of deporting foreign criminals when once they are discovered, and that identification of immigrant criminals, obviously difficult, should be facilitated. It At least three classes of immigrants who are highly undesirable because of their criminal propensities succeed in entering the United States: 1. Those who have been convicted of crime abroad and have served out their sentences. 2. Those who have been convicted of crime by foreign courts during their absence from the place of trial, having escaped arrest and fled the country. 3. Those who are regarded at home as dangerous or suspicious persons and are therefore kept under observation by the police, although convicted of no offense. Evidently the present immigration law provides for the exclusion of only the first of these three classes-criminals convicted by foreign courts, before their arrival in the United States, of crime "involving moral turpitude." It is clear that regulations should be made to check this entrance of criminals and to better provide for the deportation of those who succeed in entering. CONTENTS. Aliens excluded because of mental unsoundness.. Insane persons deported after landing.. Insane and feeble-minded aliens in the United States. Foreign-born insane in institutions, 1908... The ratio of insanity among the native-born and among the foreign-born. The native-born of foreign father compared with the native-born of native father. The alien insane, classified by nationality or race.. The tendency to insanity among the immigrants, by nationality or race. Possible causes of high ratios of insanity among the foreign-born.. The inefficacy of the immigration law....... Racial or national tendencies. The effects of change of environment.. Summary.... LIST OF TABLES. TABLE 1. Number of persons of each specified class excluded from United Page. 227 229 229 231 234 235 237 241 245 245 247 250 251 227 2. Aliens debarred from entering United States because of mental 228 230 3. Insane in hospitals in continental United States, 1904.. 4. Feeble-minded in institutions in continental United States, 1904.. 231 232, 233 6. Proportions of native and foreign born insane in hospitals in conti- 7. Parentage of native-born white insane in hospitals in continental 8. Parentage of native-born white insane in hospitals in continental 10. Persons received at Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, New York City, 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 13. Foreign-born white feeble-minded in institutions in continental 241 14. Foreign-born white insane enumerated in hospitals in continental 15. Foreign-born persons in the United States less than three years who 242 247 248 |