Speech #850009255

Mr. Speaker. some 30 Members of Congress. meeting together. I. among them. have hammered out an omnibus. overall revision of our immigration law. It has not been an easy matter to arrive at changes that not only would remove discriminations in the law. but work out solutions that would not only be just. but be workable. A goodlooking blueprint may be fine on paper. but we have to be sure that out of these plans a livable house can be built. So it is with the new immigration bill I have introduced. Just doing away with the national origins theory upon which our present entry laws are based was not enough. We had to seek for and find a new formula which would guarantee not only that one country would not be given preference over another. but that immigration into this country would not fall into conditions of chaos and confusions. once the national origins theory was discarded. Here. then. is the formula which took a bit of imagination. much research. much soul searching. and many. many forms until we found what we were looking fora bill that would do justice to American humanity and conscience. and yet would neither confound nor confuse. The overall annual quota for all peoples. everywhere. seeking entrance into the United States would be 250.000 each year. The figure. of course. is larger since spouses and minor children of American citizens would be permitted in addition to the 250.000. A further addition to the 250.000 will be parents of United States citizens and professors of academic schools. Now. then. these 250.000 will be distributed among 5 classes of people without regard to any census count in the United States. without regard to where the immigrant was born or to his citizenry. The one limitation with reference to country is that no more than 15 percent of the annual allocation could be issued to inhabitants of any one single country. As to the five classes. they are as follows: First: Family unification. Second: Occupational. Third: Refugee asylum. Fourth: National interest. Fifth: Resettlement. By the resettlement class. we mean those who have no ties in this country who fall into neither of the four other classes. but who seek to emigrate for economic reasons or because they seek to begin again in a new country. Who will make this distribution? Each year. the President of the United States. after consulting with the Departments of State.