Speech #820208847

Consistent with that principle. Mr. President. are not only those provisions of the proposed legislation which plug the loopholes in our immigration and naturalization system but also those provisions which remove inequities and discriminations in the system. Mr. President. in discussing the provisions of this bill which contains 302 pages consisting of thousands of provisions revising and codifying hundreds of immigration and nationality laws. I shall not burden the Senate with a detailed sectionbysection analysis. This would only be a repetition of the voluminous comparative analysis which the Committee on the Judiciary issued as an accompanying document to our report on the bill which was sent to every Senator months ago. I do desire. however. to comment on the principal features of the bill which. as I have said. are the same as the principal features of the companion bil which recently passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming majority. The bill retains the nationalorigin quota formula as the basis for our quantitative restriction of immigration to this country. I especially emphasize that statement. Mr. President. because I deem it vital to our consideration of the pending bill. National origin quotas have been an integral part of our immigration system since their establishment in 1929 pursuant to the provisions of the Immigration Act of 1924. and while they have been frequently criticized and attacked. no one as yet has come forward with an acceptable substitute. Even those who would whittle away the principle of nationalorigin quotas by providing for the distribution of unused quota numbers among the lowquota countries seemingly profess adherence to the principle of national origin for the maintenance of the composition of our population according to the contribution by various nationalities. Mr. President. Senate bill 2550 does. however. remove from our immigration laws the present racial discriminations in a realistic manner. Under the terms of the bill. nationalorigin quotas will be available to all countries of the world. and no immigrant will be barred solely because of race. nor will aliens be barred from naturalization because of race. Another significant change made in the immigration law is the removal of discriminations based on sex. Under the present law. men are accorded favored treatment. Senate bill 2550 removes inequalities based on sex. thereby providing like treatment for both men and women. One of the most significant changes made by the bill is the introduction of the principle of selectivity into our quota system. Under the provisions of the bill. 50 percent of each quota is allocated to aliens whose services are needed in this country because of their special knowledge or skills. I particularly emphasize that statement.