Speech #820209040

And because this is a subject with which most of us have had no occasion to be familiar. we may be inclined to accept what we cannot readily understand. and follow the course of acting in haste and repenting at leisure. What specifically. in form and content. is the legislation now before us? S. 2550. the McCarran omnibus immigration bill comprises 302 pages. 4 major titles. including 13 chapters. 142 sections. 340 subsections. and 547 paragraphs. and a considerable number of subparagraphs. Almost every one of these subdivisions affects scores. hundreds. thousands. and even millions of lives in their most fundamental aspectthe privilege or right. as the case may be. to live in the United States. There are also pending about 200 amendments designed to remedy some of the outstanding defects of Senate bill 2550. as some of us see those defects. This proposed legislationthis mass of proposed legislation. I might sayis all before the Senate. and from it the Senate may work out and approve an omnibus immigration bill which will recodify the immigration and naturalization laws of the United States. and fix into our laws the principles and procedures which will henceforth govern and determine the following: First. the selection. screening. and admission of aliens into the United States. second. the status of aliens already in the United States. including their deportation from this country. third. the naturalization of aliens and the expatriation and denaturalization of citizens. fourth. the permissible conduct of aliens in this country. and the permissible conduct of naturalized citizens. especially in regard to the political beliefs and activities which they hold and in which they may engage. fifth. the organization. procedures. conduct. and administration of the agencies and officials designated to handle immigration. exclusion. deportation. naturalization. expatriation. and denaturalization. sixth. the legal avenues of relief for aliens and naturalized citizens against whom the penalties of exclusion. deportation. expatriation. and denaturalization are invoked. and seventh. the conduct of our foreign policy insofar as it involves immigration. deportation. and naturalization. All these subject matters and many others are treated in the pending bill. Can one imagine more complex. more delicate. more fateful. and more farreaching legislation than that which is before us? It vitally involves the status and the very lives of the 3.500.000 aliens in the United States. It vitally involves the status of the 8.000.000 naturalized citizens in this country. It vitally involves the status of the 450.000 naturalized and nativeborn American citizens now resident abroad. It vitally involves millions of American citizens whose parents. wives. or children. or other close relatives are aliens. either in this country or abroad. It vitally involves the security of the United States.