Speech #870052511

Why has he not acted? I can understand his thinking. I believed the President when he wrote to me and I believe that he intends to carry out his promise. but we get awfully annoyed at the long wait. not only for his recommendations in the immigration field. but also in his delay in appointments of persons of Italian ancestry. For practical political reasons. I believe. the administration has not sent a message to the Congress asking for a revision of the immigration laws as was promised. The many measures which the President has recommended relate to legislation for the improvement of the economic position of the people of the United Statesthe minimum wage law to increase the earning capacity of the workers of America. the aid to depressed areas. the extension of the unemployment insurance law for dependent children. the social security increases. are all designed to help a struggling people where unemployment is high and misery is rampant. The climate for opening the doors to permit a larger number of immigrants to enter our country would not sit well with a Congress or a people who claim that they cannot obtain decent wages and a good standard of living. Last week we voted and passed in the House of Representatives the Mexican national or bracero program which permits the entry of Mexican workers. approximately 400.000. to work on American farms. The paradox is that while we claim that we must keep out immigrants because there is unemployment. we permit the entry of 400.000 Mexicans because we need farmworkers throughout the Southwest and the South of our country. It might be wiser for us to revise our immigration laws to permit farmworkers from Europe who are not specialists to come to work on the farms of America which are feeding not only the 180 million people of the United States. but practically all of the peoples of underprivileged nations. For us to maintain our image to the peoples of the world. we must have a fair and realistic immigration law. We cannot say to the people of the Mediterranean. Africa. and Asia that we are interested in your welfare and yet when they come to our doors we raise our hands and say. "Thou shalt not enter here." Our Nation had the respect of the world since 1776 because the people felt that ours was a land of opportunity. we proclaimed that all men were created equal and that we welcomed in friendship the homeless. the tempesttossed to our shores.