Speech #840100558

In answer to my letter. the President wrote that some study should be made of the act. and he pointed out 10 different items which he thought could be improved. or about which he thought a study should be made. At this time I do not intend to review those items. but I merely point out that the President urged that we study them. The McCarran Act provided for a Joint Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. which should have for its purpose the overall study of the operation of the act. I became chairman of that committeeas I had previously been made chairman of the subcommittee on immigration of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that committee it was my purpose to make that study. However. I encountered the opposition of the late Senator McCarran to such an extent that we could not obtain any funds for the committee. and therefore we could not employ a staff to assist in studying the operation of the act. That situation continued for 2 years. In 1953. after the Emergency Refugee Act which I sponsored was passed. I made a trip to Europeunder the auspices. by the way. of the subcommittee on refugees. not the subcommittee on immigration. I made that trip for the purpose of studying the Refugee Act and what it might be able to accomplish. and to acquaint our consular officers and others with the spirit of the act and the congressional purpose. and also to study the operation of the McCarran Act. I spent 3 months of rather intensive work in connection with that investigation in 16 countries in Europe and the Near East. I had staff members with me. and we tried to make as thorough a study as we could in that period of time. I reached the conclusion that the consular agents in whose hands administration of the act was placed were doing a good job. Nearly all of them said they thought the act was an improvement over previous legislation on the subject. and that only one or two improvements should be made in it. In 1953. the President sent a special message to the Vice President and to the Speaker of the House. urging the enactment of an act that would permit the admission of approximately 240.000 refugees to the United States. He urged the enactment of such a measure on an emergency basis. We had a long series of hearings and a rather vigorous contest in the Judiciary Committee on a bill which I and some 19 other Senators sponsored.