No one will deny that the security of our country must be defended from spies and enemy agents. The question is whether we shall accomplish this purpose with rigid. arbitrary. and unrealistic bans or by the proper and proved method of careful screening. I am opposed to this bill because its security provisions. as written. would not only make it difficult for some of this countrys best friends to be admitted. but many naturalized citizens would be forced to live constantly in fear of deportation or loss of citizenship. because of violation of a simple municipal ordinance. such as parking a car at the wrong time or in the wrong place. The further proposal that wherever there is a minor. technical defect in the admission of an alien. he or she is always subject to deportation. is another example of the kind of thinking which. in my opinion. should not be written into legislation because it is contrary to the most basic precepts of our legal system. I am opposed to H. R. 5678 because. in section 212 (a) it abdicates for Congress the power of the control of immigration by providing that the President may. at any time. establish a barrier against the entry of any or all foreigners to the United States. It may be necessary. in times of great emrgency. to del~d~at6i1u- & erfl the President briefly. But it is poor policy and poor democracy to grant such power to one man and to allow him to use it under normal as well as under emergency conditions. It is impossible. at this time. to enumerate all of the reasons which I could give for my opposition to this bill. on a pagebypage or a pointbypoint basis. Many of my objections have already been made on the floor today. The underlying assumption of the legislation seems to be that every wouldbe immigrant is a suspicious character who is to be admitted. if at all. by sufferance and who is to remain subject at all times to instant apprehension and deportation. I believe that rather than this unAmerican and negative approach our immigration legislation should be based on the assumption that the infusion of fresh new blood. of a selected stream of immigration. is good for the economic. spiritual. and cultural growth of our country which was settled and peopled by immigrants and built to greatness by immigrants. It is true that H. R. 5678 provides at least two important improvements on our existing immigration and naturalization system. It would make Asiatics eligible for admittance and citizenship. even though it retains a strict racial concept by discarding the principle that place of birth determines country of origin in the case of persons of oriental stock. And it removes existing discriminations on account of sex. But in an omnibus measure such as this. the record of a few improvements such as those noted is far outweighed by the multitude of undesirable features which I have Just outlined. Let us. in this year 1952. reject the outworn principles of the pastmany of which are demonstrably unworkableand write into law a genuine revision of our immigration policy which will reflect the kind of Americanism we are proud to show to the world. One major and relatively simple way of accomplishing that purpose is the manner suggested in other bills before this Congress which call for the pooling of unused quotas at the end of each year in order to make visas available for the benefit of victims of political or racial persecution. A little over 60 years ago the Statue of Liberty was dedicated as a gift of the French Nation to the American people. The statue was the work of Auguste Bartholdi. an Alsatian who had fought for France in 1871 and for Italian liberty under Garibaldi. The funds needed to build a pedestal for the monument were raised by the New York publisher. Joseph Pulitzer. a Hungarian refugee. and it was Emma Lazarus who wrote the immortal lines on the tablet. For millions of people in the past. as for millions of people today. that statue has stood as a symbol of mans most cherished dreams of freedom and opportunity. Let us do nothing here which will dim the light which flows from her torch throughout our own land. and throughout the world.
Identified stereotypes
The underlying assumption of the legislation seems to be that every wouldbe immigrant is a suspicious character who is to be admitted. if at all. by sufferance and who is to remain subject at all times to instant apprehension and deportation.