File No. 907/30.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Wilson.
Washington, October 12, 1907.
Sir: Referring to the visits to and operations in Belgium of immigration agents of certain of the States of the United States, which have formed the subject of correspondence between the department and the legation, and referring especially to your dispatch (No. 167) of April 7, 1907, in which it was suggested that the legation be furnished with a clear interpretation of the present construction of our immigration laws with respect to the operations of such commissioners, I inclose herewith for your information a copy of an opinion rendered on September 30 in the case of the alien Geronimo Garcia,a which case was brought to the attention of the Attorney-General by the Louisiana state board of agriculture and immigration with the object of testing the provisions of the act of February 20, 1907, relating to immigration of alien laborers by the States and Territories.
On the 22d of last August the Belgian legation at Washington called the attention of the department to certain pamphlets which were (and possibly are now) being distributed in Belgium by Charles Schuler immigration agent of the State of Louisiana, and inquiring whether or not the contracts offered Belgians to emigrate were exposing them to deportation.
A copy of the Belgian legation’s note was communicated to the Department of Commerce and Labor, which, in its answer, dated the 8th instant, states that a reply to the Belgian legation’s inquiry is furnished by this opinion of the Attorney-General.
I am, etc.,
- See inclosures to note of this date to the Belgian legation.↩