Speech #860009747

Mr. President. I Introduce for appropriate reference a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. This bill is by no means an attempt to revise the law in its entirety. In drafting it. I have merely sought to correct some of the more glaring inequities in the present law. I hope a majority of the Senate can agree with these revisions. This bill is similar to other short immigration bills I have sponsored in prior Congresses. with certain revisions reflecting amendments as contained in Public Law 85316. which mainly covered hardship cases. I want to make it clear. Mr. President. that although I am offering this modest proposal it should not be assumed that other changes in the act are not needed. My position on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 is well known. At the heart of that act lies the national origins quota system. which is designed to exclude certain races and nationalities. There can be no justification for legislation which is based upon the false theory of the inferiority of certain nationalities or races. The national origins quota system should be abolished. There should be a unified quota system which would allocate visas without regard to national origin. race. creed. or color. Such a move would place our immigration policy more in line with that as expressed by George Washington in 1783: The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger. but the oppressed and perrecuted of all nations and religions. whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges. if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment. While a sweeping revision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 is in order. in view of the obvious difficuties which are faced in obtaining such a revision. it is more advisable in my judgment that we make a concerted effort to at least eliminate some of the most blatant defects in the present act. That is what I am attempting to accomplish in the bill I am introducing today. I should like now to make a brief summary of this bills provisions: First. Section 1 restores to professors eligibility for nonquota statuswhich they enjoyed prior to the McCarran Actif a university requests their services. This proposed change is based on a feeling of confidence that our universities will select only wellqualified persons for employment on their teaching staffs. It. therefore. abolishes the unnecessary redtape and delay involved in requiring universities to obtain clearance orders from the local employment service and then proving to the Immigration Service that the professor whose immigration is being sponsored is needed urgently in the United States. My amendment in no way changes the security requirements of our laws. as they concern all who wish to enter the United States. Second. For more than 7 years I have been the sponsor of legislative proposals to ameliorate the harsh effects of the nationalorigins principle through quota pooling. I was. therefore. very greatly pleased when the President. in 1957. endorsed quota pooling in his special message on immigration. Quota pooling means simply that quota numbers made available to any given country. but not used by it. may be allocated to a country which needs them. My own quota pooling proposal differed in some detail from that proposed by the administration.