Citizenship of the United States #250333

These laws, substantially the statutes enacted more than a hundred years ago when our population was less than four millions, and when it was the policy of our government to invite immigration, were ill adapted to our modern conditions, with a population of eighty mil lions and an influx of foreigners of more than a million annually. Under these laws lax and unsatisfactory methods of naturalization had grown up, opening the way to gross frauds against our citizenship, including perjury, false impersonation, and traffic in false and counterfeit certificates of citizenship. Such certificates were sometimes sold to alien criminals to secure their ad mission to the United States, and frequently to procure protection against their home governments. Cases have actually occurred where aliens have landed on our shores for the first time, having in their possession certificates entitling them to the full rights of American citizenship.