Miss JAMES. As I recall, it was a surprise to me that it was refused.
Mr. COLEMAN. But you had nothing to do with the first petition?
Miss JAMES. No.
Mr. COLEMAN. You weren't the one that sent the petition from the
Department of State to INS?
Miss JAMES. No; that is routine visa work.
Mr. COLEMAN. Do you recall when Mr. Crump informed you that INS had
refused to grant the waiver under section 243(g)?
Miss JAMES. I don't recall the date. I do recall his informing me that
they had had this information from INS that the petition was approved,
but that the section 243(g) waiver was not approved and, therefore,
it looked as though Mrs. Oswald would not be able to come directly to
the United States. If she came at all she would have to go via another
country that did not have this sanction against it.
Mr. COLEMAN. Could you explain for the record just what the sanction is
under section 243(g)?
Miss JAMES. Yes; the sanction is that the United States will not
issue an immigration visa to a citizen of a country which refuses to
accept a deportee from the United States based on the reasoning that
if you can't deport to that country, if a person turns out to be an
unsatisfactory immigrant, you are stuck with that immigrant.
Mr. COLEMAN. Does that mean that the person cannot come into the United
States?
Miss JAMES. No; it means that Mrs. Oswald could have gone to Belgium,
France, England, any other country that accepts deportees, and applied
for an immigration visa and have been admitted without any question on
a section 243(g) waiver.
Mr. COLEMAN. I have marked as James Exhibit No. 2 a memorandum from
Robert I. Owen to John E. Crump, under date of March 16, 1962, and
the subject of the memorandum is: "Operation of sanctions imposed by
Section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act in case of Mrs.
Marina N. Oswald."
(The document referred to was marked James Deposition Exhibit No. 2,
for identification.)
Mr. COLEMAN. Did you prepare the original of that memorandum.
Miss JAMES. Yes; I prepared it under Mr. Owen's supervision.
Mr. COLEMAN. Do you recall Mr. Owen asking you to prepare it?
Miss JAMES. This was my responsibility, this case, but I had long
discussions with Mr. Owen on the case as to how we should proceed with
it before I wrote the memorandum.
Mr. COLEMAN. And Mr. Owen told you, "Why don't you draft a memorandum
for Mr. Crump explaining to him the situation?"
Miss JAMES. We came to agreement in a talk as to how to handle the
case, and I drafted the memorandum which would go to Mr. Crump because
he was the officer in the Visa Office handling the case.
Mr. COLEMAN. In the third paragraph of the memorandum it is stated
that: "SOV believes it is in the interest of the U.S. to get Lee Harvey
Oswald and his family out of the Soviet Union and on their way to
this country soon. An unstable character, whose actions are entirely
unpredictable, Oswald may well refuse to leave the USSR or subsequently
attempt to return there if we should make it impossible for him to be
accompanied from Moscow by his wife and child."
Did you draft that?
Miss JAMES. Yes.
Mr. COLEMAN. Was this language that Mr. Owen had discussed with you and
told you to put in the memorandum?
Miss JAMES. My way of working is to draft a memorandum in rough draft.
I give it to Mr. Owen. He and I--he might well have put in some few
words. I don't know just where he would have changed it or whether he
did change it. I can't say. It is impossible to say at this time unless
I had the original draft, but I know he was in agreement with this.
Mr. COLEMAN. Were you the one that brought up the point that Oswald was
an unstable character, or was that something Mr. Owen contributed?
Miss JAMES. I believe the Department--I will say our office was sure
that he was an unstable character by the very fact that he had tried
to renounce his American citizenship, and then come--by the fact he
had tried to renounce his American citizenship, makes him an unstable
character to me.
Mr. COLEMAN. Was it your thought that once he got out of Russia and
back into the United States, that we wouldn't let him go back again?
Miss JAMES. I think we would have--I would have, based on my work in
the office, I would have hoped we would have done everything to keep
him from going back. Whether the passport regulations would have made
this possible, I don't know.
Mr. COLEMAN. You never wrote a memorandum to the Passport Office,
though?
Miss JAMES. No; that if he applies again, don't let him go back--no; we
did not.