The persons to be admitted must be screened by our representatives administering the program in Europe. .They must be investigated by the FBI. They must prove to the State Department that they are attached to our American institutions. And. finally. they must satisfy the requirementsof our immigration officials. Certainly that is the best we. as Members of Congress. can do. If. in any case. a single undesirable person is admitted under this program. it will not be due to a lack of precautionary measures on the part of Congress. because. as a matter of fact. it is many times more difficult to be admitted under this bill than under the provisions of our general immigration laws. It must be remembered that under normal conditions prevailing under our general immigration laws we have no initial control over the persons applying for admission. while under this bill the screening process above described must be gone through on the spot in Europe. We have provided in this bill for the mortgaging of the quotas of the several and respective countries from which the displaced persons will come. We are charging the quotas of these countries with a sum equivalent to the number of persons to be admitted under the pro.visions of the Displaced Persons Act. In the long run and in the long pull. we are not admitting any more persons than would be entitled to come to the United States under the provisions of our general immigration laws in the course of years. This bill may be described as an accelerated program of selective immigration. Fears may be expressed that the pattern which we are setting may be modified in the future. It might be said *that although we are not disturbing the number of persons to be admitted in the long years to come. we might be opening the door for succeeding Congresses to do so.
Keywords matched
immigration