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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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my bedroom so that it was easily accessible to me and not accessible to anybody else. I suppose practically all Cabinet officers have that connection.

So that telephone rang and it was the President. He said, “Frances, I've got something to tell you. Maybe you won't like it.”

I said, “Well, go ahead, what is it?”

He said, “I've decided that we ought to take the Immigration Service out of the Department of Labor.”

I said, “Mr. President, can't you remember, as long as two months ago? I've been recommending this to you up until two months ago which I think is the last time I mentioned it. I've been recommending it to you for at least five or six years as something to be done. Where are you going to put it?”

He said, “Well, on account of the war situation and the problems with saboteurs and spies, I'm going to put it in the Department of Justice.”

I said, “Well, under ordinary circumstances I think that's a bad place for it, because in time of peace it ought to be treated as one of the humanitarian functions of the government. If immigrants come in I think we ought to provice for their proper assimilation and adjustment. If they must be deported, we have to be sure that it is done under the symbols of mercy and justice that are characteristic





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