Speech #880079473

Mr. Speaker. I am today introducing a bill which would implement the immigration program recently proposed by President Kennedy. This legislation. similar to that already introduced by my esteemed colleague. the gentleman from New York . represents an important and muchneeded step toward correcting a serious blot on the image of the United States. Our existing immigration laws. even when viewed in their most favorable light. are grossly inequitable. The quota system is a thinly disguised attempt to key the criteria for entry to the United States to a discriminatory concept of national interests. It seems especially Ironic that a country which is composed almost entirely of immigrants and descendants of immigrants should have adopted such discriminatory exclusion policies. From the time of the first settlement of the American Colonies until early in this century our country welcomed millions of immigrants. Then. as the supply of open land became exhausted and the cities filled with persons looking for work. policies of restriction began to be imposed. While one can hardly argue that immigration should have remained completely unrestricted. it is hard to justify the way in which certain groups have been welcomed while others are turned away. The first victims of this discrimination were the Orientals. Fear of the "Yellow Peril" led to the conclusion of Theodore Roosevelts "gentlemens agreement" between the United States and Japan. with a resulting drastic reduction in Japanese immigration. During the First World War the Congress became receptive to an expansion 0 of the policies of exclusion. with the peoples of southeastern Europe as the new target. After the passage of severel temporary measures. the Immigration Act of 1924 gave permanent status to the discriminatory national origins quota system. This system was perpetuated in the McCarranWalter Act. which was passed over the veto of President Truman in 1952. While this law still remains in full effect. its provisions are frequently circumvented through special legislation and private bills.