Speech #870137234

Mr. President. we must continue to encourage this transfusion of new blood and muscle and brainpower to refresh and revitalize America. We must. as well. give hope to those who would leave their native land or some refugee camp because of injustice or totalitarian oppression. America must still provide a chance for those who would come here because of lack of opportunity or overpopulation in their homeland. Admittedly sections of our immigration laws have long been in need of major revision. A reading of both party platforms for 1960 shows agreement on this point. The Republican platform recognized the importance of the immigrant in the growth and intellectual enrichment of America. It pointed out: The Republican administration had given refuge to over 32.000 victims of Communist tyranny from Hungary. ended needless delay in processing applications for naturalization. and had urged other enlightened legislation to liberalize existing restrictions. The Republican platform then stated: Immigration has been reduced to a point where it does not provide the stimulus to growth that it should. nor are we fulfilling our obligations as a haven for the oppressed. Finally. the Republican platform proposed: 1. The annual number of immigrants we accept be at least doubled. 2. Obsolete immigration laws be amended by abandoning the outdated 1920 census date as a basis and substituting the 1960 census. 3. The guidelines of our immigration policy be based upon Judgment of the individual merit of each applicant for admission and citizenship. The 1960 Democratic platform made sweeping criticisms of existing immigration laws. and especially the national origins quota system. it also said that sweeping revisions of these lawsas opposed to piecemeal changescould be expected in the event of a Democratic victory. In an effort to carry out our Republican platform pledge. I was a cosponsor of S. 551. introduced on January 23. 1961. by my distinguished colleague from New York . and of S. 552. introduced on the same date by my other distinguished colleague from New York . These bills were intended to correct obvious defects in our immigration laws. The first major defect in the present law is that the quota system is based on national origins as determined by the 1920 census. Second. the larger quotas are given to such nations as Great Britain. with no overpopulation problem or with little pressure to migrate. Consequently these quotas have always gone unfilled. Third. much smaller quotas are given other nations faced with strong pressures for migration due to poverty or overpopulationGreece and Italy. for example. Under the 1924 law. the total number of immigrants was made proportionate to the 1920 total population. Since then. our population has increased between 70 and 80 million. S. 551 therefore. would double the total to over 300.000 immigrants per year. Next. the national origins quotas would be based upon the 1960 census. and the quotas would be increased for countries where there is a strong pressure for migration. These two changes would increase the annual quota of Italy from about 5.700 to almost 20.000. for Greece. the increase would be from a little over 300 to almost 3.000. S. 552 is concerned with improving the laws relating to refugees and victims of totalitarian oppression. It would improve the machinery with respect to processing refugee applications for admission to the United States. It would authorize the issuance of 40.000 special nonquota immigration visas for refugeesescapees from Communist tyranny and other areas. It would allow the President to direct the Attorney General to accept into the U.S. refugees from an uprising similar to the fight for freedom in Hungary. or the Cuban situation. I have mentioned only some of the major aims of these two bills. They also contain provisions aimed at correcting many other inequities or failings in our present law.