Speech #820245017

I want here and now. Mr. President. to commend those officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. the Visa Division. the Department of Justice. the Department of State. and the Central Intelligence Agency who. in the face of White House pressure. have stood firm in their representations and recommendations that this bill marks a tremendous improvement over our present laws. and should be approved. They are the men who are on the firing line. and who know whereof they speak. They are the men who. being charged with the enforcement of our immigration and naturalization laws. know the problems. the loopholes. and the weaknesses in our present system. and know that this bill plugs those loopholes and strengthens those weaknesses. Indeed. as I have repeatedly pointed out to the Senate. this bill would not be possible were it not for the thousands of hours of time which these officials and the experts of the executive agencies devoted in collaboration with the Senate committee and its staff in the preparation of the bill. Although the President commends the provisions of the bill which remove racial ineligibility to naturalization and to immigration. one of the grounds for his veto Is that the bill sets up special provisions with regard to the quotas to which persons of races indigenous to an area designated as the AsiaPacific triangle shall be charged. He protests what he terms "this discrimination against the oriental groups" and what he regards as its adverse effect on our foreign relations. The fact is. however. that these provisions have the unqualified endorsement of every major oriental group in the United States as the only fair and reasonable solution to this problem. and the Department of State has repeatedly taken the positionand takes the position to this momentthat the bill marks a decided advance in our foreign relations in the Far East.