Speech #870197079

Mr. President. recently I made a brief statement on the Senate floor regarding the need for updating our immigration laws. The main purport of my remarks was that the 1960 rather than the 1920 census should be utilized in determining national quotas and that new quotas should be substituted for those presently prescribed. I said thatOf the 2.5 million immigrants to this country during the 1950s. only 1 million were admitted under the provisions of the 1952 Immigration Act. The majority. 1.5 million. were nonquota. entering by means of special supplementary legislation of the Congress. Congressman WALTER called to my attention the fact that this statement unfortunately conveys the improper impression that all nonquota immigration has occurred under special legislation rather than under the provisions of the 1952 basic immigration code. I agree that such is not the case. Factually. during the fiscal years 1953 to 1961 the total number of quota immigrants was 844.281. Of the 1.471.906 nonquota arrivals in the same period. 1.173.911 qualified under provisions of the 1952 code and 297.995 were admitted under special legislation. I am grateful to Congressman WALTER. because I want to be accurate. According to the 1960 census figures. one out of every five residents of the United States is either foreign born or native born of mixed foreign and native parentage. The slightly more than 34 million persons in the Census Bureaus foreign stock category include nearly 10 million foreign born and more than 24 million of native birth. with at least one parent born abroad. This means that many of these American citizens still have relatives or members of their own families abroad whom they are anxious to have join them in the United States. Relying on the 1920 rather than the 1960 census as the basis for determining national quotas adds to the difficulty of these people in getting their relatives and members of their own families on the quota lists of the countries.