While we favor the strict enforcement of the immigration law with the belief that the law is a good thing for this country, it is not pleasing to Americans to see stupid interpretations of that law. Take the case of Rafaele Morello, for example.
Morella came from Italy a number of years ago and settled at Trenton, N.J., where he was living when the United States entered the war. He was drafted, and when it came time for him to leave, his wife was so heartbroken that she killed herself. At the trial the Italian told how it all occurred, but his dialect was so difficult for the interpreter that a mistake was made:
instead of getting the real story the interpreter told the court that Morello was making a confession.
So the man was sent to prison for life, and he must have entered the penitentiary just a little puzzled to know what it was all about, although ‘tis all along that he was being punished for not reporting to the Army. After several years in prison Rafaele began to learn more and more English and he began to ask questions. So after eight years we find him paroled, after his true story had been told.
And the immigration officials? Oh, yes, they are going to deport him, not because he killed his wife, but because he was so convicted. The law holds that a foreigner so convicted can be sent from the country and these immigration officials at times at lease are more scrupulous about the law.
This man has suffered enough already because of stupidity. Surely under the circumstances he will not come under the provisions of the law permitting the immigration officials to deport a man convicted of a crime for which he was held.
From the editorial page of the Salisbury Daily Tribune, May 24, 1926, J.B. Sherrill, editor and publisher.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-05-24/ed-1/seq-4/
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