Speech #810154684

But they are still displaced persons. because they have no homes. no place to go. unless they can establish themselves in Germany. So first there is the date change to give us a realistic date. By advancing that cutoff date we take care. as I said. of refugees from communism as well as persecutees of nazism and fascism. I have looked at the situation on the basis of two phases. I think one of the weaknesses of the present law is the failure to recognize those phases. Let us wherever possible allow entry of persons who would be of great benefit to the American people. In other words. let us where possible permit the immigrants to fit into our economy. Our economy is vastly diversified. and with the present limitation and the present date line we have to take in other persons. The socalled hard core would not be included because the hard core is composed of persons found largely to be suffering from typhus and other diseases. many of them mentally deranged. That is the hard core which is talked about. So this bill gets away from that category. and allows us to permit others to immigrate. The present act provides for a ceiling of 205.000 persons to be brought in during 2 years. The amendment would enlarge that ceiling to 339.000 in 3 years. including visas heretofore issued under the act. It would also include 15.000 of the Polish Army now in England. The United Kingdom has taken care of some 150.000 Poles who volunteered for service with the Allied armies and who fought in the last war. Approximately 18.000 of them. including their families. are people who filed application for immigration to the United States. and who are still in England and unable to locate there permanently. This bill would allow them to be taken care of without being shipped back. They cannot be shipped back to Poland unless we want to ship them to their graves. They cannot be shipped back to Germany. It would be unrealistic to do that. They should be picked up in England and brought here and treated as immigrants. The second group. 15.000. comprises political refugees from behind the iron curtain who cannot qualify under the present act. The third group consists of 4.000 refugees stranded in Shanghai. Those are not refugees from China. Those people are refugees who fled. some of them. from the war and some from communism. They fled into Shanghai when it was a free port. I know at least three of them who have homes and families in the United States. but who. because of the war. lost their citizenship and are now stranded in Shanghai.