Speech #840119976

Speaker. or if you will. the enlightened selfinterest of this great Nation. demands that we throw the lie in the teeth of those elements. We must demonstrate the everpresent willingness of the United States to eliminate from our laws any possible grounds for charges of discrimination and unfairness as soon as the circumstances so require. This country has arrived at that point in our national development where reconsideration of the immigration laws has become a necessity. This is not in derogation of the attitude or work of those Members of this body which resulted in the enactment in 1952 of the present immigration code. On the contrary. Mr. Speaker. I say that the time has come for progress or else this country will be left behind in the present world conflict. cold though It may be. The President of the United States has recommended changes in the immigration and naturalization laws. and. believing they are worthy of our immediate study in detail. I have introduced four separate bills with the request that each be considered on its individual merits. The first bill would revise the present basic quota system. The total amount of the quota would be increased from 154.657 to 219.461 by use of a formula of oneseventh of 1 percent of the total population of the United States according to the 1950 census. The socalled minimum quota areas would have their quotas increased from 100 to 200. and it is proposed that subquotas of colonies shall be increased from a maximum of 100 to 200. Each quota area would first receive its present quota. The increment resulting from use of the 1950 census as a basis for computation would be distributed among the various quota areas. in proportion to the amount of immigration therefrom during the 30 years between 1924 to 1955. Five thousand numbers would be reserved. however. for assignment to skilled specialists whose services are needed in the United States without regard to their national origin or country of birth. Mr. Speaker. this system constitutes a departure from the nationalorigins system because distribution of the increase in the quota is weighted by the fact that during that 30year period there was much immigration wholly unrelated to national origins or the nationalorigins system. such as the great numbers of nonquota immigrants. and aliens who came here under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 and the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Under the present law unused quota numbers. and I understand that perhaps as many as onethird are unused. are completely wiped out. This unfortunate result would be eliminated by this bill. which would permit the assignment of unused quota numbers annually to four regional quota pools.