Speech #840001648

Pat McCarran. I am the coauthor of the much maligned piece of legislation sometimes called the McCarranWalter Act and sometimes more scurrilous names--some of them not fit to be mentioned in this distinguished and. what is very important. mixed company. Immigration is a vast part of the field of human relations. in which law can do as much harm as good. Immigration means people. Immigration affects human fate and human destiny. The law can help. but the law can hurt terribly. The law can inflict great hardship and on occasions it can hurt beyond possibility of remedy. Men writing legislation in the field of immigration have to be more cautious than men writing laws that affect taxes. tariffs. shipping. banking. etc. In the first half of the current century. a few words in a certain section of the immigration law of the United States meant the difference between life and death for many people escaping totalitarian brutalities. Conversely. mistakes in the enforcing of the law can mean untold human tragedies and suffering. An immigrant inspector on the New York waterfront is just as much i protector of our and our childrens security as any soldier who. while on active duty. is in charge of protecting a vital military establishment. The same immigrant inspector may be guilty of causing harm to a human beingoften. harm and damage beyond repair. I could dwell long on the subject of immigration. This evening. however. is to be devoted to much more pleasant things than my speech. and I shall therefore ask your indulgence in permitting me to talk about but few aspects of the problem which have recently been brought to my attention. Since its enactment in June of 1952. the Immigration and Nationality Act has been savagely attacked by various organized groupsin my opinionalmost invariably for wrong reasons and on false grounds. We all know that the only sane purpose of any immigration law Is to regulate the admission of immigrants and to keep out aliens who may harm or weaken our country. Of course. carried to its logical extreme. such a policy could be inhumanly harsh. It would keep out all nonproducing foreignersas they are kept out by many countries--even to the point that means separation of families.