Speech #820200457

Mr. Chairman. I rise to express my vigorous opposition to the Walter immigration bill. H. R. 5678. It has been reported to us as a package bill designed to codify and revise our immigration and naturalization laws. It is package legislation all righta package which. in my opinion. fails to list all of its "ingredients" on 4he label. First of all. it should be noted that we are not concerned here only with a measure which seeks to clarify and codify existing immigration and naturalization procedures. Surely no one who has read It can deny that this bill proposes. as well. to write into basic legislation the most discriminatory and restrictive immigration policy this country has ever seen. I am opposed to this bill because I am convinced that it not only outlines an unduly restrictive immigration and naturalization policy but also because it contains major threats to our civil liberties. our foreign- policy. and our way o life. H. R. 5678 has been described as a bill to modernize our immigration system. The restrictive principles contained in this bill are just about as far removed from modern needs and requirements as they could be. This is no time to set our standards narrowly or provincially. A sound national immigration policy would make it practicable for us to admit larger numbers of worthy immigrants from the overcrowded countries of the Old World. Thus. we would contribute our share toward the relief of population pressures in wartorn countries abroad and we would. at the same time. add to our supply of manpower so urgently needed here in order to assure continued and expanded productivity on our farms and in our factories which is so vital to our national security. Moreover. the Walter bill fails to modernize our immigration system in another important area. It retains the 1920 census data as the base for quota allotmentsthereby rejecting the opinion of experts who hold that it would be more logical to use the 1950 census as a base. I heartily agree with our distinguished colleague. the chairman of the Judiciary Committee . that our immigration system should use the 1950 base. Surely even the most ardent advocates of the national origins principle cannot really believe that this principle can apply to the American Nation today. unless it is kept up to date. If our aim is really to modernize the Immigration and naturalization system. then we should first make the necessary changes in those sections or provisions of the Immigration laws which have never functioned properly. The historical picture of American immigration since 1925 demonstrates thatonly about twofifths of the quota numbers have been filledwhich. in Itself. is the clearest Indication that the "national origins" principle has never worked. Only 1.500.000 immigrants have entered this country under quotas in the last quarter of a century. while approximately 2.500.000 quota numbers were not used at all. The fault for this can be directly and entirely ascribed to the "national origins" concept. which awarded 84 percent of the total quota numbers to the socalled Nordic countries of northern and western Europe. while only 14 percent were allotted to southern and eastern Europe where the need is greatest. Clearly. from the record. this unrealistic quota distribution should be revised and modernized. and there are bills before this House which would do it. One of the simplest and most effective ways is to use the method of pooling unused quota numbers. as outlined in the Celler or in the Roosevelt bills. In adopting this method. we would achieve greater flexibility to meet world conditions without requiring a major overhauling of the whole immigration system. Of course. the most logical step would be to eliminate the "national origins" principle altogether. Picture for a moment if we were to apply this principle to other legislation. for example. the draft law. Suppose we specified in that law that 84 percent of the draftees must be descended from Nordic stock and only 14 percent of the draftees could be descendants of immigrants from Italy. Greece. Poland. and the rest of the countries of southern and eastern Europe.