The Smallest Show on Earth

With its customary lack of grace, the United States Immigration Commission last week precipitated a seven-day international wonder show--the deportation and subsequent re-admission to the U.S. of William Heikkila, a Finish alien.

Heikkila has faced a deportation order for over a year, due to admitted Communist Party membership in this country from 1929 to 1939. For months he forestalled execution of the order via a series of court maneuvers. Last week Lieut. Gen. Joseph M. Swing, Commissioner of Immigration, took advantage of an interim between sessions to arrest and deport Heikkila--without notifying the Finn's wife or his lawyer, and in defiance of a federal court order.

But as soon as Heikkila had arrived in Finland--suitcase-less and clad in a summer suit--Gen. Swing, faced with a contempt citation, ordered him to be flown back to the U.S.

More disturbing than the implied mockery of the courts, and perhaps more frightening than Swing's hip-shooting brand of private justice, has been the attitude of certain officials.

Swing has maintained a tone of righteous indignation; "When a Jap was captured, did we say 'Go home and kiss your wife good-bye'?" Heikkila will be deported "if it takes from now until I get kicked out." And Representative Walter and his subcommittee, who are investigating the incident, appear more concerned about Swing's tactics as capital for Communist propaganda and adverse publicity for the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, than about the morality of the tactics themselves.

The Immigration Commission attempts to manipulate Heikkila like a puppet have two unattractive aspects. It appears that the judiciary is the only branch of government left with a real concern for individual rights and for due process. And if Swing's spleen and Walter's wrist-slapping are any index of the nation's government, we are in a very bad way indeed.