Office of the Historian

812.00Detention/68

The Acting Secretary of State to the Attorney General (Mitchell)

Washington, May 4, 1929.

My Dear Mr. Attorney General: With reference to your letter of April 16, 1929,72 expressing your understanding of the latest arrangements between our two Departments regarding the disposition of Mexican Federals or rebels entering the United States, I have the honor to append herewith my understanding of the arrangement as informally reached at a conference held in this Department on April 13, 1929 at which were present representatives of your Department, the Department of Labor and the War Department, and subsequently modified informally as a result of consultation by telephone:

(1)
Unarmed rebels admissible under the Immigration laws and not having maltreated American citizens or property in Mexico shall be permitted to enter the United States, it being understood of course that should evidence be developed of any violation of law on the part of the applicants while previously in the United States which would subject them to prosecution, proper action looking to such prosecution would be taken by representatives of the Department of Justice.
(2)
Armed rebel combatants seeking or effecting admission into the United States either at a regular port of entry or otherwise shall be taken into custody by the Army.
(3)
Individual Federal soldiers—officers or privates—are to be permitted to come to and go from the United States freely as heretofore.
(4)
Should any large detachment of Federal soldiers come into the United States to be moved across the territory of the United States, it would be necessary to secure the consent of the States through which they pass for such movement, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Labor.
(5)
Should any detachment of Federal troops seek refuge in the United States they shall be disarmed and taken into custody by the Army and turned over to the appropriate Mexican Consul for [Page 414] disposition, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Labor. The arms shall be similarly and separately disposed of.

The aforementioned arrangement would appear to be of no immediate practical value in view of the termination of the insurrection in Mexico and I have quoted it merely as a matter of record.

I am [etc.]

J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
  1. Not printed.↩