Speech #840000924

Polands quota was reduced from 31.000 to 6.500. and the same was true for other countries. Mr. Speaker. when a codification of our immigration laws was undertaken several years ago. million of our citizens had hoped that the biased and intolerant laws would be eliminated and a new approach toward the selection of immigrants would be established. but those who drew up the McCarranWalter bill included the worst and most obnoxious features which had accumulated on our statute books over the past 30 years. The restrictive quota system was retained. large quotas were again assigned to countries unable to use them up. and the unused portions of the quotas were wasted instead of permitting lowquota countries to use them. So much for the quota system. Now. let us examine briefly another set of regulations in the McCarranWalter Act which constitute an insult to all Americans who believe in the concept of equality. I mean the provisions which deal with naturalized citizens. Under the McCarranWalter Act it is easier to deprive such people of their citizenship and deport them from the United States. In the past it was necessary to provide proof of fraud at the time of naturalization. but now it merely needs to be shown that a person failed to mention some minor incident in his past and he stands to lose his citizenship. It is a threat which hangs over his head for the rest of his life. This. in effect. sets up two classes of citizenship. since no naturalized citizen can ever feel secure of his citizenship status any more. it is something which we have never before had since this Republic has been founded. There are many other injustices in that act. perhaps too numerous to mention. Suffice it to mention the findings of a Presidential commission. named by President Truman in 1952 to study the act.