Speech #850087255

There are a number of reasons which cause me to propose to Congress a limited trial of a new and selective method for the distribution of authorized but unused quota numbers. They are as follows: First. Experience during the last 15 years has shown that our immigration policy lacks elasticity to meet the demands of our time. It will be recalled that President Franklin D. Roosevelt. in January. 1944. issued an Executive Order authorizing the admission into the United States of a limited number of victims of totalitarian persecution. In 1948 Congress enacted the Displaced Persons Act in order to meet a great human crisis that had developed in the wake of World War II. In 1953. Congress again enacted emergency immigration legislation known as the Refugee Relief Act in order to extend a helping hand to victims of Communist persecution who were seeking asylum in countries of the Free World. In November. 1956. even before the expiration of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. President Eisenhower issued a Presidential Order authorizing the emergency admission into the United States of Hungarian refugees who had fled into Austria during and immediately following the inspiring Hungarian revolution against the despotism of Russian communism. All of these special immigration acts and directives were made necessary because our basic immigration policy and the laws that govern it were so rigid that they could not be applied in such emergencies. Second. The national origins formula which is basic to our immigration laws was developed in the period 1921 to 1924. at a time when our national security and wellbeing were not endangered by the threat of world communism. and when the belief existed that it was possible to safely insulate the United States from world affairs since we were separated from most of the rest of the world by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This explains in large measure the rigidity of the mathematical formula which today determines how many quota numbers shall be authorized each year and who shall be benefited by them. Third.