Speech #820201617

According to the best evidence available there will not be more than a handful of people affected. But I do take this time for the purpose of calling the attention of the House to the misstatements contained in an ad that appears in yesterdays New York Times. Somebody Is trying to force me to tell what is in back of the opposition to this immigration bill. Perhaps I ought to do it. but at the moment I am going to refrain from doing so. But I do want to point out the misstatements in this ad. The first is that the bill under consideration would continue to waste these visas. Is it proper to call waste the fact that people do not avail themselves of the opportunity to come to the United States? I do not think so. The ad goes on to state that the bill itself adds new racial discrimInations. It says that these bills are designed to exclude Negroes by drastically reducing immigration from colonies in the Western Hemisphere. That just is not true. Of course. the effect of giving to colonies the same quota numbers that commonwealth countries have will affect the number of Jamaicans comIng to the United States. but It Is not antiNegro because the same principle is being applied to all the people who otherwise want to come and can come. regardless of their color. The third item in this ad states that the bill further restricts immigration by subjecting victims of religious persecution to literacy requirements. Now let us see. I called members of the Displaced Persons Commission to ascertain how many aliens were excluded under the Displaced Persons Act. under which we had as of today received nearly 340.000 people. and found that not one single person was refused admission because of being illiterate.