Speech #840233287

The bill will be received and appropriately referred. and. without objection. the press release. explanatory statement. and summary will be printed in the RECORD. .The bill to amend and revise the laws relating to immigration. naturalization. nationality. and citizenship. and for other purposes. introduced by Mr. LEHMAN (for himself and other Senators). was received. read twice by its title. and referred to the. Committee on the Judiciary. We are today introducing an omnibus immigration and citizenship bill to overhaul. revise. and replace the discriminatory. oppressive. and inhospitable immigration and citizenship laws now on our statute books. Our bill is a recodification of the McCarranWalter Act. preserving the technical advances it made over preexisting law. but modifying and humanizing the spirit and letter both of preexisting law and of the McCarranWalter Act in conformity with the repeated pledges and commitments which have been made by both major parties and by the President of the United States in official communications and messages to the Congress. Our bill conforms to the recommendations of scores of religious and nonsectarian organizations of all shades and complexions interested in- immigration and citizenship. and dedicated to the free exchange of ideas and persons. within the limits of reasonable security safeguards and orderly immigration procedures. Our bill carries out the recommendations of the nonpartisan Presidential Commission on Immigration and Citizenship. which made its report in January 1953. We call on President Eisenhower. and on the leadership of both parties in both Houses. to help insure prompt. early and intensive hearings on our bill and on other pending proposals to amend the McCarranWalter Act. In the present state of world affairs we dare no longer tolerate on our statute books the present shameful law which is losing us friends abroad daily. holding us up to contempt in the eyes of free mankind. and working havoc among our own people. It is intolerable that we should continue to maintain our own Iron Curtainagainst visitors and alien immigrants alikewhile criticizing the Iron Curtain abroad. And the daily examples of senseless cruelty and injustice against aliens already resident here. or recently arrived here. makes our advocacy of justice abroad seem like hollow sham and pretense. Our bill provides full and comprehensive security against the admission of subversive and undesirable aliens into the United States. Indeed. our bill tightens existing loopholes which now permit millions--yes. millions--of unscreened aliens to flood across our northern and southern land borders. and prevents orderly apprehension and prevention of such illegal immigration. with its dangerous components of subversive. diseased. and criminal elements. Our bill would remove the intolerable barriers which now keep renowned scientists. scholars. and men of letters from coming to our shores as visitors. and also businessmen and tourists. Our bill would remove this particular stigma of shame from our statute books. Our bill would eliminate racism and national discrimination from our immigration laws. Our bill would eradicate the status of secondclass American citizenship which now is fastened on millions of naturalized Americans. American citizenship. which was once Inalienable. both for the nativeborn and for those who acquire citizenship by naturalization. has become. in the McCarranWalter Act. a temporary licensesubject to revocation on a score of groundsmany of them unsubstantial and even capricious. Our bill would limit immigration. but would not stifle it. Our bill would permit immigration to be used. as it should be. as one of the tools and expressions of our foreign policymeeting our national need at home. and the particular need of aliens abroad. Our bill would help restore America to the role it has traditionally occupiedas the hope of the oppressed and the persecuted everywhere. an asylum for the brave. the venturesome and the freedomseeking abroadwithin the limits of our conservative capacity for assimilation. Our bill recognizes that a limited amount of immigration. carried out in an orderly way. with due regard for selection. resettlement. and integration. is of benefit to America. not a danger to America. All decentminded Americans. if they knew the facts about present law. would join in demanding that Congress promptly remove the many boobytraps for citizens. for resident and immigrant aliens. and for visitors. now secreted in the McCarranWalter Act. The law is a mess which must be cleaned up without delay.