Speech #850012340

This bill will apply to any person from a Communist. Communistdominated or Communistoccupied country in Europe who flees because of persecution or fear of persecution on account of race. religion. or political opinion. It stipulates that. in general. those provisions of the Refugee Relief Act that relate to assurances of employment and housing. security investigations. priorities. and cooperation between the United States Government and by other governments in migration matters. will apply to East European escapees. All the safeguards of the Immigration and Nationality Act are to. apply to those who would be admitted by this bill. save for certain exceptions. These exceptions include a provision that escapees afflicted with tuberculosis can enter this country if they are members of family units that are entering and if arrangements satisfactory to the Attorney General and Surgeon General can insure that the person afflicted will not become a public charge or endanger public health. Obviously. total exclusion of tubercular persons would work considerable hardship not only on them and their families. but would also handicap solution of the pressing refugee problem. With modern vaccines and methods of therapy. tuberculosis is no longer the scourge it used to be. Scientific progress has made it possible for us to amend old attitudes and this clause of the bill reflects that fact. This bill also relaxes the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act to the extent that a person excludable because of previous membership in a Communist. totalitarian. subversive. or similar type of party or organization can now be admitted if he can establish to the satisfaction of the Attorney General at the time he applies for a visa that he is actively and permanently opposed to the party or organization in question and if his admission is deemed to be in the public interest. A second bill I am introducing today is intended to correct a situation that has arisen in regard to most of the Hungarian escapees who have been received into this country. They were admitted under the emergency parole provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act. but this provision leaves open the question of what the future status of these escapees will be. Their admission as parolees does not permit permanent residence or the acquisition of citizenship. Now quite obviously the United States does not intend to send these people back to Hungary or tell them to get out and go to some other country. Consequently. their status here must be -resolved and resolved promptly. By clearing up this situation quickly and by doing now what will eventually have to be done anyway. we will add to the fund of good will these recent Hungarian arrivals already feel for us and will hasten their incorporation into the American body politic. The easiest way to accomplish this is to consider them admitted for permanent residence as nonquota immigrants. provided they make such an application. My bill will authorize this procedure. The Hungarian escapee question Is. however. only a part of the entire problem of immigration into the United States. Ever since the end of World War II the problem of migration into the United States from other parts of the world has been acute. The revolutionary political developments that have -occurred in Europe and Asia. as well as the vast movement of economic forces around the globe. has uprooted millions of individuals and sent many of them clamoring at the doors of the United States. The problem this has created for us is affected by the fact that wealth has responsibilities and even more by the consideration that the maturity and wisdom of our leadership is being put to a test. We are being closely scrutinized by the world not only because they want to see how many immigrants we will allow on our shores. but also because they want to know what standards we will apply in admitting them. For many years our immigration policy has been constructed on a national quota foundation. In plain terms this means that we have applied racial factors in determining who should have the privilege of migrating into the United States. Not only that. but by basing our system of national quotas on an immigration pattern established years ago and now outdated. we have made it ineffectual and artificial as far as present needs are concerned. More than onethird of the total annual quota is allotted to a nationality group that neither wants nor uses an allotment of that size. In many cases only tiny quotas are assigned to nationalities that could literally use thousands of visas. Unfortunately these inequities. in many cases. involve precisely those nationality groups who make up our refugee and escapee problem. The third bill I am introducing today is framed to make long needed reforms in United States immigration law. It is a companion bill to that introduced by the distinguished Congressman from New York. the Honorable EMANUEL CELLER. last monthH. R. 3364. It provides the only sane and reasonable approach to the immigration problem. It is framed not only to give the greatest possible recognition to all those who want to enter this country. but it also establishes a practical and humane approach to the longterm refugee problem. First of all. it casts aside the nationalities principle as a gage of who should or should not pass over the threshhold of the United States. There would be no discrimination based on national origins or race. It would therefore not only greatly benefit those from Eastern Europe who are at present handicapped by meager quotas but it would also be an invaluable means of assisting certain groups. like the Jewish and other expellees and refugees from Egypt. that are suddenly faced with personal catastrophe and expulsion from their homelands. In place of the nationalities principle. this bill sets up five classes of immigrantsfamily unification. occupational. refugee. national interest. and resettlement. These classes would fall within an overall annual quota of 250.000. which is about 100.000 more than the present quota. The number that would fall into each of these classes would be flexible. Each year the President would fix an allocation for each one of these classes. This would be submitted for the approval of Congress which would have 60 days in which to make its decision. The big advantage of adopting this flexible principle of annual allotment by classes is that our immigration policy can be constantly molded and remolded to fit the particular needs of the times. In order that no one nationality will be unduly favored. the bill provides that within each class no more than 15 percent can be assigned to inhabitants of any one country. Other outstanding features of this bill are that it takes the longoverdue step of wiping out distinctions between nativeborn and naturalized citizens and reforms the administration of immigration by eliminating the State Department and concentrating directive authority in an assistant attorney general serving as director of a bureau of immigration and citizenship. In a word. this bill would revamp the immigration law of the United States to put it completely in harmony with the democratic principles of our way of life and permit us. far more flexibly than we can at present. to reshape our immigration quotas each year to make them fit our needs and the needs of the world. With these three bills which I have just described. the American people can have a fully rounded immigration policy enabling them to resolve the immediate and urgent problems that confront them at the present moment. as well as the problem of longterm immigration policy. in a manner that will redound to their honor and their best national interest. I strongly urge that they be thoughtfully considered and promptly passed.