Legislation for the Suppression of the White-slave Traffic

By the act of March 26. 1910. sections two and three of the immigration law of February 20. 1907 were amended to prevent more effectively the importation of women and girls for immoral purposes and their control by importers and others after their admission to the United States. following recommendations of the Immigration Commission on that subject.

By the act of March 26th, the following were added to the classes excluded by Section 2 of the Immigration Act: "Persons who are supported by or receive in full or in part the proceeds of prostitution." Under the terms of the act of 1907 "women or girls coming into the United States for the purpose of prostitution or for any other immoral purpose," were specifically excluded from the United States.

Under that law. however. there was no specific provision for the exclusion of that particularly reprehensible class of persons referred to in the act of March 26, 1910. By the amendment of Section 3 of the law of 1907, additional means were provided for the punishment and deportation of aliens who in any way profited or derived benefit from the proceeds of prostitution.

The agitation of the white-slave traffic in Congress also resulted in the enactment of a law prohibiting the importation of persons from one State to another for the purposes of prostitution, and punishing severely those engaged in the traffic.

Jeremiah W. Jenks, Ph.D., LL.D. and W. Jett Lauck, A.B., "Legislation for the Suppression of the White-slave Traffic" In The Immigration Problem, New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1912, P. 313-314.

 

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