Speech #830195727

Now in -the 83d Congress we have before us S. 2862. I have no doubt that it. too. will be passed. In all. there will have been at least five occasions when we will have bypassed the immigration quota laws by enacting special legislation admitting Basque sheepherders. In spite of that fact I shall not cast my vote against S. 2862. However. I .should like to ask the distinguished Senator from Nevada. before casting my voteand I again want to say how disappointed I am that he is not in the Chamberwhether he does not agree with me that the pending bill illustrates again the need for reviewing the act. and. in my judgment. revising the national origins quota system. One of the reasons I insisted on this opportunity. Mr. President. to debate this bill. or at least to discuss it. is that I am very much afraid that the opportunity to debate immigration legislation of any kind is to be drastically limited in this session of Congress. Although some of us had had some hopes. based on President Eisenhowers campaign pledges. and based on his message on the state of the Union in 1953. that revision of the McCarranWalter Act would be considered during this Congress. those hopes are now doomed to frustration and extinction. The administration has made no move In this session to bring up. or to urge the consideration of. this vital subject. of this allimportant subject. The only legislation we have had bearing on immigration was. in the last session. the Refugee Relief Act. I shall take occasion within the next week or two. to discuss in detail before the Senate our experience with this law. Let it be sufficient for the moment to say that after almost a year under this major piece of emergency immigration legislation. we had admitted to our country. as of a fortnight ago. 48 individuals48 out of an authorized total of 209.000. Mr. President. we are going to admit Into this country. under the terms of the pending bill. S. 2862. more Spanish sheepherders than we have to date admitted under the entire Refugee Relief Act in nearly a year. And this is another reason why I am going to vote for the pending bill. It may well turn out that the McCarran sheepherder bill now before us will be a more practical and effective piece of immigration legislation than the RefVgee Relief Act. It may be that more aliens will come in under the pending special bill for the relief of the Nevada sheepraising industry than under the administrations bill for the relief of all the refugees. escapees. persecutees. orphans. and surplus population in Europe and Asia. Mr. President. that is not an idle statement.