Speech #860298171

Mr. Speaker. I am pleased that the splendid platform adopted by the Democratic National Convention contains the following wise and forthright section on immigration: We shall adjust our immigration. nationality and refugee policies to eliminate discrimination and to enable members of scattered families abroad to be united with relatives already in our midst. The nationalorigins quota system of limiting immigration contradicts the founding principles of this Nation. It is inconsistent with our belief In the rights of man. This system was instituted after World War I as a policy of deliberate discrimination by a Republican administration and Congress. The revision of immigration and nationality laws we seek will implement our belief that enlightened immigration. naturalization and refugee policies and humane administration of them are Important aspects of our foreign policy. These laws will bring greater skills to our land. reunite families. permit the United States to meet its fair share of world programs of rescue and rehabilitation. and take advantage of immigration as an important factor in the growth of the American economy. In this World Refugee Year It Is our hope to achieve admission of our fair share of refugees. We will institute policies to alleviate suffering among the homeless wherever we are able to extend our aid. We must remove the distinctions between nativeborn and naturalized citizens to assure full protection of our laws to all. There is no place in the United States for secondclass citizenship. The protections provided by due process. right of appeal. and statutes of limitation. can be extended to noncitizens without hampering the security of our Nation. We commend the Democratic Congress for the initial steps that have recently been taken toward liberalizing changes in Immigration law. However. this should not be a piecemeal project and we are confident that a Democratic President in cooperation with Democratic Congresses will again implant a humanitarian and liberal spirit in our Nations immigration and citizenship policies. I have repeatedly called the attention of this House to the need for making basic changes in our immigration law. as proposed in the Democratic platform. While the lack of substantial progress in this important field of our national policy is deplorable. nevertheless I have been heartened by the number of limited improvements that have been enacted in recent years. The outstanding examples are the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 and Public Law 85316. approved September 11. 1957. The Refugee Relief Act made it possible for over 200.000 people to enter the United States outside the quota limits of the McCarranWalter Act. Public Law 85316 has made it possible for other special classes of aliens to enter. notwithstanding the restrictions of our basic law. The present Congress has seen some humanitarian improvements even if they are of limited applicability. The alien orphan adoption provision and tubercular alien provision of Public Law 85316 were extended. Public Law 85363. passed last year. was designed to reunite families both by improving the method of allocating visas among the preference groups within each quota and by granting nonquota status to many aliens who had been on waiting lists for a number of years. Public Law 86648 is a modest contribution to our participation in World Refugee Year. It expands the Attorney Generals authority to parole refugees into the United States and to grant them permanent resident status. It is a deep disappointment to me that the unfortunate Italian nationals who have been displaced from their ancestral homes in Tunisia are not eligible for entry under this new refugee law. A measure providing for the issuance of 5.000 special nonquota immigrant visas to these refugees and their families was introduced by me in the Congress after reading the moving report on this tragic problem made by the Honorable Juvenal Marchisio. National Chairman of the American Committee on Italian Migration. Surely. the plight of these people. so graphically described by Judge Marchisio. merits our compassion and assistance. Despite the shortcomings and limitations of these measures. I have gladly supported them. but emergency legislation is not sufficient to mitigate the harshness of the quota system. As the Democratic platform declared. "this should not be a piecemeal project." We must enact basic amendments to our immigration codeamendments which would eliminate completely the unjust. discriminatory national origins provisions from the law. The Refugee Relief Act was designed to take care of an unusual situation to be sure but it demonstrated that this country is capable of absorbing fresh blood over and above what the national origins quota provides. The quota after all is not holy writ. as some would like to think. It is not the ideal. the perfect one and only method of determining how many immigrants shall enter the United States or who they shall be. It is in fact an anachronism. granting even that it made some sense in 1924 when it was adopted. It is based on a theory of racial superiority and inferiority which we have long since rejected. It would have our quotas set. from now until eternity. presumably. on the basis of the racial composition of the United States in 192040 years ago. Moreover. the racial homogeneity principle of the national origins system is not being realized in actual practice because most of the quota visas available to natives of the preferred countries. such as Great Britain are not being used. while we have at the same time had very large immigration from Western Hemisphere countries which do not come within the strictures of the quota at all. With each passing year the national origins concept becomes more ridiculous. It will most certainly be replaced with a more realistic system some dayit is just a matter of time.