Speech #830231846

Speaker. under leave to extend my remarks in the REcOnD. I include the following article from the Readers Digest. issue of August 1954: AMearcAs NEW FRONTDooR PoLIcy (By Herv4 J. LHeureux 2) Present American immigration policy. It has been charged. embitters our friends. encourages our enemies and brings the good name of our country into disrepute. Such wholesale indictment Is. I believe. unjustifled. I should like to answer it. The new law is a complete rewriting. the first in 30 years. of our vast and complex immigration procedures. It has been in effect only 18 months. No doubt its administration. in this early period. has been sometimes faulty. on occasion unnneessarily harsh. But time and experience are smooth1Herv4 LHeureux has been in the American consul service since 1927. From 1947 to 1952 he was Chief of the Visa Division of the State Department. He is at present supervising consul general for Western Germany. Ing out the rough spots. And time and experience are pointing the way to some adjustments in the law itself. Meanwhile. the total record. as distinguished from the exceptions. indicates that our immigration policy is still in the generous American tradition. Our treatment of desirable aliens. whether visitors or immigrants. Is. in fact. fairer and more friendly today than at any other time in my experience. Let me first point out that admission to the United States is not a right but a priviege. extended by our Government on certain conditions. Those conditions. laid down in the law. are aimed to safeguard our country against "undesirables"-the criminal. the subversive. the diseasedand to promote what the Congress believes to be our countrys best interests. Unlike many countries where tourism is a major industry and where "undesirables" seeking admission are not a major problem. the United States does not write its immigration laws to attract millions of foreign visitors. We aim. rather. to give maximum protection to our own selfinterest. while accepting responsibility in the world community. To judge our success at that difficult task. let us look at some pages from the recent record. At New Yorks International Airport last February 24. a chartered plane carrying refugees from Communism arrived from Germany. There were 84 persons aboard. children and adults. A majority were Russians.