Speech #870035830

These considerations should not. I believe. serve to promote changes in the law designed to lock tight the doors to the United States. They must. however. prompt every responsible American to look at immigration problems with more caution and discernation than it was necessary some three of four decades ago. It should be obvious to anyone concerned with the national interest that our immigration policy must at this particular time be adjusted to our domestic. economic. and social problems with a considerably greater degree of precision than at any other time. Certainly. the United States must remain a haven for the oppressed and persecuted. Certainly. the United States cannot deny its citizens and residents the right to be united with their families. Certainly. however. the United States cannot for political reasonsdomestic or externalattempt to absorb into its bloodstream unmanageable and unassimilable quantities and qualities of immigrants. Nothing strikes me as more preposterous. than the proposals to increase our immigration quotas in proportion to the increase of our own population as shown by the decennial censuses. It is my firm belief that using the existing law together with timely adjustments which. from time to time. are being incorporated into the basic statute. the United States is quite satisfactorily equipped to protect itself. and at the same time implement its responsibilities to the community of freemen. Since the end of World War II and up to the present time. this country had continuously possessed in its hands legal instrumentality permitting the admission of a most generous fair share of refugees. Too many people overlook that fact. Similarly. after removal by the present law of racial bars to immigration and naturalization and aftef the establishment of equitably determined nonquota categories of immigrants. our statutes compare most favorably with the laws of other countries. another often overlooked fact. In further implementation of policies. which I attempted to outline to you. I introduced today in the House of Representatives a bill containing the following basic features: 1.