Speech #840233536

President. is not merely academic. it goes to the heart of our Republic and our basic Christian ideals. Ours is a constitutional republic. built upon concepts stemming from cultures which reflect themselves in the historic composition of our population. If we transfer the pattern of our immigration to countries and peoples who have historically maintained a totalitarian concept of government. it will only be a matter of time until our Republic will veer from its traditions of freedom and democracy. But. Mr. President. the increase in our annual immigration and the transfer of the cultural pattern of that immigration would be brought about not only by the provision which I have just pointed out in the substitute bill. but also by two other provisions. namely. the provision in the substitute bill removing quota mortgages under the displaced persons law and the provisions of the substitute bill transferring unused quota numbers under the Refugee Relief Act for utilization under the general immigration law. Mr. President. under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. as amended. approximately onehalf million persons were brought into the United States from the lowquota countries of southern and eastern Europe. In order to maintain the principle of our national origins quota system. the law provided for mortgaging of the quotas to which these people would be properly chargeable. but no quotas were mortgaged more than 50 percent for any 1 year. The substitute would eliminate these mortgages. so that. in effect. we would be increasing. in the course of the next several years. the total immigration into the United States from the southern and eastern European countries in the amount of approximately onehalf million. In other words. Mr. President. the safeguards which the Congress wrote into the Displaced Persons Act. in order to maintain on a longrange basis the cultural pattern of our immigration system. would be wiped out. and an additional onehalf million people from southern and eastern Europe would be admitted into the United States. Mr. President. I do not suggest that northern and western Europeans are better than southern and eastern Europeans. or that Europeans. as such. are better than Asiatics. However. our whole immigration system is based upon the concept that for maximum assimilation and for the maintenance of our traditional concepts of liberty. it is in the public interest for us to maintain in our immigration system a pattern proportional to the cultural composition of our population. This is aside from the numerical limitations of our immigration system which would be greatly expanded by the provisions of the substitute. Mr. President. there Is a third aspect of the substitute which contributes to the destruction of the basic provisions of our immigration system. namely. the provisions relating to the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. as amended. Mr. President. as I shall develop in the course of my remarks. the term "Refugee Relief Act" is a clear misnomer. Under the provisions of that act. some 214.000 aliens were embraced either for admission or for adjustment of status. The original act passed in 1953 included not only refugees but also nonrefugee nationals. virtually all of whom were from the lowquota countries of southern and eastern Europe. The Senate committee report on the refugee bill contained the following language: The committee wishes to emphasize. however. that the overall quota stated in the bill is an upper limit and is not intended as a mandate to those who will have the responsibility of administering the act requiring them to achieve the number declared by the Congress to be the maximum. The committee is further of the opinion that the bill in its amended form allows ample time for completion of the quotas stated in the bill and It wishes to go on record as not in favor of future extensions of this legislation. It is specifically stated by the committee that none of the safeguards provided in this legislation and in the Immigration and Nationality Act are to be sacrificed or compromised in the slightest degree In the interest of moving people for the sake of fulfilling quotas or allotments. The committee further states that if on the expiration date of this legislation the maximum number of visas authorized to be issued has not in fact been issued. the committee will not be disposed to entertain petitions for further extensions of time in order to utilize any visa numbers which have not been used by the expiration date provided for in the legislation. The statement of the managers on the part of the House. which accompanied the conference report on the refugee bill. contained the following language: The conferees desire further to stress that this legislation constitutes in no way a mandate to Issue. within the prescribed period of time. the full number of visas allocated under this legislation. These are. in each case. maximum limitations. not quotas to be filled. It is to be clearly understood that this bill offers opportunities to enter the United States to a certain number of eligible aliens but that no special effort should be made to evade any of the provisions of this act or the Immigration and Nationality Act in order to bring in such number or any number. Similarly. it is the unanimous consensus of the conferees that no efforts should be made to induce aliens to seek entry to the United States under this bill.