Speech #870052448

Bianchi. and Bangor. etc. Persons of Italian ancestry have made their contribution. and we will not permit any Oscar Dam or a Walter Winchell to denigrate. blacken. or destroy the reputations of Americans of Italian origin or stereotype our people as gangsters. The first restrictive legislation excluding entry into the United States of certain classes of immigrants was the act of March 3. 1875. On August 3. 1882. further legislation was passed which excluded paupers and criminals. That same year saw the enactment of the first Chinese exclusion law which remained in effect until Its repeal in 1943. Thereafter. other attempts were made to curb immigration. but it was not until 1917. when. to quiet the demands for restrictive and selective legislation. a law was passed on February 5. which codified and grouped together all laws affecting immigration which has previously been in effect. The post period of World War I witnessed a radical change in our national immigration policies. The result was that on May 19. 1921 our country effected a change to a policy which restricted the number of imgrants who could enter. It limited the number of any particular nationality to 3 percent of foreignborn persons of that nationality who lived here in the year 1910. This. in effect. permitted about 350.000 immigrants to come here who originated mostly from northern and western Europe. On May 26. 1924. further legislation was passed which changed both the base census year and the method of calculation. It was then changed to be based upon the 1890 census and the rate was lowered to 2 percent. Under this law until 1929. the total quota became 164.600. The 1924 act was a farreaching change during that quarter century In that it restricted any change in the basic composition of the American makeup. Thus these two basic actsof 1917 and 1924qualitatively and quantitatively operated to regulate the flow of immigration to this country. In 1952. the Immigration and Nationality Act was enacted. This--the McCarranWalter Actpooled together all existing laws and regulations dealing with immigration and to this day It is the law which governs the immigrant. Under current law the total quota is 154.887 and the quotas are allocated to each area on the basis of onesixth of 1 percent of the number of such nationals in the United States in 1920. These laws are based on the absolute principle of national origin. The theory of national origin upon which the allotments of immigration quotas is based was developed in the early part of the 20th century when. following World War I. this country dug its head into the sands of isolationism with its xenophobic fear of aliens who were not of AngloSaxon stock. Northern Europe was favored over southern Europe. the Nordic races above the Slavic and Mediterranean peoples. We see that the whole pattern of the national origins fabric has been shredded since the 1924 act. We have tried to put the cloth together by enacting special refugee legislation. by enacting special nonquota legislation relating to the principle of reuniting of families and by nonquota immigration from the western hemisphere. The national origins theory has lost all its practical meaning. It stands as an Indictment not only as against American tradition. but also American logic. It mocks our Declaration of Independence and statement that all men are created equal. Special legislation was enacted for refugees. escapees. spouses. etc. who came from such countries as Cuba. Italy. Spain. Poland. Czechoslovakia. all countries whose quotas. under the law. are severely restricted. While our immigration laws close the front door. the back door is left wide open. We know. too. that much immigration from the western hemisphere. particularly from Canada. is not of Nordic origin. Mexican nationals come into the United States by the hundreds of thousands under a bracero program. under a special program. or as resident aliens. Many people who fled persecution in the last 20 years have settled in Canada.