Speech #850290010

Their Portuguese relatives who have suffered so much since their homes were destroyed in the Azores will make equal contributions to our great country if we pass this bill and allow them to come to our shores. Mr. Speaker. unfortunately this is the only bill that will come before us in this session of Congress to allow immigrants to enter the United States. I had hoped that in this 2d session of the 85th Congress that the Immigration and Nationality Act would be amended. Bills which were filed by myself. H. R. 93 and H. R. 4086. and bills filed by many other Members of this House and Members of the Senate provided for a much more realistic approach to the present problem. For instance. under the present act only 438 quota immigrants can be admitted annually to the United States from Portugal. only 308 from Greece. only 5.645 from Italy. and only 6.488 from Poland. Why? Because the quotas are based on the 1920 census. Section 201 (a) of Public Law 414. 82d Congress. authorizes onesixth of 1 percent of the 1920 census of Americans of foreign extraction as the basis for the issuance of immigrant visas. The lowest quota is 100. but southern European countries such as Portugal. Italy. and Greece have very low quotas because there were very few Americans in 1920. comparatively speaking. who were descendants of the Portuguese. the Italians. and the Greeks. Mr. Speaker. I hope the 86th Congress will face the immigration problem realistically. The act needs to be amended and the national quotas must be based on the 1950 census. not the 1920 census.