Speech #860034090

I stated that "it is not always easy. in times such as these. for an honest man to cast his vote in this House with the comfortable certainty that time will prove that he made the right choice." I was confident then that my position was right. I am absolutely certain now that it was and that time has proven it so. I have introduced legislation to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act in every Congress which has convened since it was enacted. This year I introduced H.R. 315basically the same bill I introduced in the 84th and 85th Congress. I am proud to say that this is a companion bill to H.R. 16 introduced in this session by the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. one of the most untiring champons in the cause of humanizing our immigration policies that I know. A number of other members have joined me in sponsoring the same bill since it was first introduced as .the CellerLehman bill in 1955. This bill would correct many of the injustices that exist in our present immigration system and would at the same time improve the systems administration. The most important change the bill would effect would be the elimination of the national origins quota system as the basis for determining whom among the peoples of the world we are to welcome as immigrants. A plethora of words have been uttered in the past 35 years on the subject of our national origins quota system. by its advocates as well as its adversaries. I shall not add to this superabundance beyond stating that in my opinion the national origins quota system is a vestigial holdover of a discredited theory of racial superiority and inferiority. Many of us thought that we were fighting to rid the world of threats from a similar theory propounded by the Third Reich during World War II. I would make only one other observation concerning our present quota system. This is that during these times. when we are striving to win over and hold in our camp the peoples of the uncommitted and underdeveloped areas of the world. this problem assumes larger proportions. For these are the very people we are slapping in the face with our national origins selections.