A-7910824 and A-7910825
Decided by Board April 11, 1951
Subversive, proscribed organization, member of organization affiliated with — Act of 1918, as amended — Exclusion ground — "Voluntary" membership or affiliation — Public Law 14 (March 28, 1951) — Term "voluntary" examined — Evidence.
The uncontradicted testimony of the male applicant that he was required to join the Profesoruse of the Workers of Higher Skills, a trade union in Russia, under the circumstances indicated, is deemed sufficient, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to make a finding that his membership in such trade union was involuntary and his past membership therein is not a basis for exclusion in view of the provisions of the act of March 28, 1951 (Public Law 14). (See Int. Dec. #253, 4 IN Dec. 341.)
EXCLUDED BY BOARD OF SPECIAL INQUIRY:
Male applicant: Act of 1918, as amended — Member of an organization which was affiliated with the Communist Party of Russia.
Female applicant: Act of 1948, as amended — Not an eligible displaced person.
BEFORE THE BOARD
Discussion: This is an appeal from the decision of the Assistant Commissioner, Adjudications Division, finding the applicants inadmissible to the United States on the grounds above stated.
The applicants, husband and wife, are seeking to enter the United States as Displaced Persons. The wife has been found inadmissible only because her husband is inadmissible.
The applicants are Russians by birth, and lived in their native country until 1935 when, because of their antagonism to communism, they fled to Poland. There they lived until 1945 when they were deported to Germany. Both are now living in a displaced persons camp in Germany. The male applicant is a university graduate (1914) and specialized in forestry and botany, and in particular peat bog science. He testified that after graduating from the university in 1914, he continued his scientific work, principally in the peat bog field at the university from which he graduated as well as other institutions. While so employed, and beginning about 1923 or 1924, he was required to join a trade union, or Profesoruse, known as the Profesoruse of the Workers of Higher Skills. Dues for this organization were deducted from the salary of the members.
It is because of his membership in this organization that the male applicant has been found inadmissible to the United States by the Immigration and Naturalization Service under section 1 (2) (C) (v) of the act of October 16, 1918, as amended by section 22 of the Internal Security Act of 1950, as a member of an organization which is an affiliate of the Communist Party of Russia.
This case is directly affected by an amendment to the Internal Security Act, approved March 28, 1951. Under this amendment the terms "members of" and "affiliated with," as used in the act of October 16, 1918, as amended, shall include only membership or affiliation which is or was voluntary. According to the uncontradicted testimony of the male applicant, he was required to join the Profesoruse of the Workers of Higher Skills. There is no evidence to the contrary. We feel his testimony in this particular should be accepted without corroboration, since the practice in totalitarian countries of requiring workers to join organizations of this character is well known. We, therefore, accept the testimony of the male applicant that his membership in the Profesoruse of the Workers of Higher Skills was involuntary and, hence, under the act of March 28, 1951, his past membership in this organization is not a basis for exclusion.
The wife has been found inadmissible solely because her husband was considered inadmissible.
Order: It is ordered that the appeal be sustained, and the applicants be found admissible to the United States upon securing valid replacement visas.