Speech #880082215

We are making significant progress in desegregating our public schools. housing. business. and public accommodations. and protecting the voting rights of all citizens. It is imperative that we. as a Nation. recognize this great upheaval in our Nation and throughout the world for equal status. Repeatedly America has been accused that it has been unfair in Its immigration laws. We have erected racial barriers that deny equal dignity and respect to more than onehalf of the worlds population. These racial barriers are bad for America. They hurt Americas image as the leader of the free world. For example. do Senators know that under present American immigration quotas for Asia and the Pacific areas more than 50 percent of the people who populate our newest State could be almost totally excluded from the United States? That Ireland. with a population of 2.815.000. has a larger quota than all Asia. with a population of nearly 11/2 billion? That the quota for tiny Switzerland is greater than the quotas for the entire African Continent? That Rumaniaa Communist nationhas a quota of 289. which is small enough. but this is nearly a third more than our quota for nonCommunist India and the nonCommunist Philippines combined? Do Senators know that the immigration quotas of nearly every nation in the AsiaPacific area are so small that Japans waiting list stretches all the way to 1989 or beyond. the quota for Chinese persons is for all practical purposes exhausted in perpetuity. according to State Department officials. because immigrants already admitted into the United States have been charged against it. the quota for Okinawa. which does not fall under Japans but under a special AsiaPacific quota of 100 shared by 20 other Pacific dependencies. is backlogged for 48 years. until the year 2011. the Philippines quota is 89 years behind. and only the quotas of Afghanistan. Cambodia. Malaya. Laos. and Nepal are open. since these are countries which generally have not sought immigration beyond their borders? The 1960 platforms of both the Republican and Democratic Parties recognized the need to eliminate the racial features of the law. The relevant excerpts of the Republican plank on immigration read as follows: Republican conscience and Republican policy require that the annual number of immigrants we accept be at least doubled. obsolete immigration laws be amended by abandoning the outdated 1920 census data as a base and substituting the 1960 census. and the guidelines of our immigration policy be based upon judgment of the individual merit of each application for admission and citizenship. The Democratic platform in relevant part states: We shall adjust our immigration. nationality and refugee policy to eliminate discrimination and to enable members of scattered families abroad to be united with relatives already in our midst. The nationalorigins quota system limiting immigration contradicts the founding principles of this Nation. It is inconsistent wth our belief in the rights of man. The revision of immigration and nationality laws we seek will implement our belief that enlightened immigration. naturalization. and refugee policies and humane administration of them are important aspects of our foreign policy. We shall have to act with greater resolve to implement these pledges with legislation. I am very pleased to see the junior Senator from the State of Michigan in the Chamber at this time. He is one of the greatest advocates of revision of our immigration laws. The junior Senator from Michigan is the author of an immigration bill. S. 747. which has won the endorsement of every community organization which is interested in immigration. This bill has been cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 37 Senators. The distinguished and able junior Senator from Michigan has been in the forefront of the battle to end racial discrimination in our immigration laws and policies. The bill which the Senator has introduced seeks a comprehensive reform of our immigration laws. The Senator from Michigan has worked zealously and untiringly toward such reforms. He has a reputation for deep sincerity. fairnes3. justice. and fair dealing. and his efforts to tell the Nation about unfair and discriminatory immigration laws have been unflagging. He is without a doubt one of the Nations leading experts in the field of immigration. I am most delighted and pleased that he is in the Chamber this afternoon. and I am most happy to help him in the enactment of a sound and fair immigration law.