Speech #840018237

Muanow. Senator HERBERT LEHMAN was one of the 26 Senators who voted against the bill In 1952. We asked him to comment on Representative WALTERS statement that immigration was up 22 percent since the McCarranWalter Act. Senator LEHMIAN. Well. Mr. Schorr. in claiming that immigration under the McCarranWalter Act increased by 22 percent. Congressman WALTER is playing with figuresa very dangerous game. The fact is that the total legal immigration in the fiscal year 1954 was lower than in any preceding year since 1947 with the sole exception of fiscal year 1953. the year Congressman WALTER used as his only basis of comparison. In the 2year period during which the McCarranWalter Act has been on our statute books. fiscal year 1953 and fiscal year 1954. total legal immigration was 378.000. but during the 2 years preceding the passage of the McCarranWalter Act. fiscal years 1951 and 1952. total immigration was 471.000. In other words. total immigration was 25 percent greater during the 2 years before the McCarran Act than after. Moreover. over half of the socalled increase in immigration in 1954 over 1953 is accounted for by the Increased immigration from Mexico which is not under the quota system at all. I think actually this bill which is claimed to be an immigration and naturalization law is not that at all. but an exclusion. a denaturalization and a deportation law. A1764 You know the McCarranWalter Act is based on the socalled national origins quota which goes back to 1924. At that time. they drafted a law which permitted a certain percentage of the people in this country who were of certain national origins to come in. and that. In turn. was based on the population. on the census of 1920. where there were thirty or forty million fewer people than there are today. Now. under thatunder that quota system which I am very much opposed to. the national origins quota. a certain number of people were given to England and Italy and Poland and Greece. and the other countries. England and Northern Ireland were given 65.000. Only a very small percentage of those people come in here because the English dont immigrate. They want to stay at home to u great extent. so that thesetheyre unused quotas which cannot be used by any other country under the present law. On the other hand. a country like Greece has a quota of only 308. most of which are already mortgaged under provisions of the McCarran Act.