Speech #820209040

I feel that we should legislate on this subject this year. I feel strongly about this. Our immigration and naturalization laws do need codifying. They are. indeed. in a chaotic state of confusion and disarray. In this respect. I agree completely with the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee. who has. sincerely. I know. and with great diligence. applied himself. along with the staff of his committee. to the work of recodifying our immigration and naturalization laws. I agree with him that there is a great need for such recodification. I am aware of the years of effort which have gone into the study of this matter. I have seen the comprehensive report Issued by the Judiciary Committee pursuant to Senate Resolution 137 of the Eightieth Congress. That report. No. 1515. runs to almost 1.000 pages and has been the basis of several omnibus immigration bills introduced in the House and the Senate during the past 2 or 3 years. including the pending measure. the McCarran bill. As I said. I am aware of all these efforts and all these studies. Indeed. those of us who drafted and Introduced. first. S. 2343. the LehmanHumphreyShort bill. and then S. 2842. the HumphreyLehman omnibus bill. made effective use of the compilations and studies included in Report No. 1515. to which I have just referred. as well as to the record of the joint hearings before the House and Senate subcommittees on immigration of the Committees on the Judiciary. But I must say at this pointand I cannot emphasize this too stronglythat Senate Report No. 1515. as well as S. 2550. reflect a basic philosophy on this subject utterly at variance with my own. and utterly at variance with that of a great many of my colleagues. This philosophy is a xenophobic philosophy. It is a racist philosophy. It is a philosophy of fear. suspicion. and distrust of the foreigners outside our country. and of the aliens within our country. It Is a philosophy which is plainly prejudiced against immigration. It is a philosophy which accepts. or rather tolerates. a trickle of immigration. but surrounds it with such hedges. barriers. and obstacles as to make it a virtually impossible course to follow. This philosophy is founded on the assumption that America Is under the constant threat of losing her AngloSaxon character because of immigration. and that the socalled bloodstock of America. described as AngloSaxon and Nordic. is the basis of America and must be preserved from contamination by foreign immigrants. This rather quaint philosophy forgets the fact that America was settled and peopled entirely by immigrants. and built to greatness by immigrants. from many lands and many continents. Moreover. what makes America is not the racial or national ancestry of our inhabitants. but the very mixture and melding of many cultures and blood strains. and the fusing of those streams. in a climate of freedom and opportunity. into a mighty river of energy. industry. and individual dignity. Mr.