The most recent State Department figures. as of January 15. 1964. demonstrate once against the inadequacy of the law. The backlog in first preference applications. those of skilled technicians. which our own national selfinterest should lead us to admit. is 1.207. in second preference. parents and unmarried children of U.S. citizens. it is 2.638. second preference. parents and unmarried children of lawful permanent resident aliens. 7.941. and in fourth preference. brothers. sisters. married children of U.S. citizens and their spouses and children. 164.601. The bill I am introducing today will update all four of these preference categories by treating as nonquota immigrants. if they are otherwise eligible for admission under the act. those preference applicants who have filed their petitions with the Attorney General by August 1. 1964. How inadequate even this measure of relief would be can be judged when one considers that there would remain unaffected by this some 630.021 nonpreference applicants. A second section of the bill I am introducing today provides for pooling of the quota numbers which remained unused in each fiscal year. and their allocation to the remaining applicants during the next fiscal year. This pooling device is a central feature of my general quota reform bill. S. 1823. which modernizes the entire quota system. The adapted provision authorizes the President to determine how the unused quota numbers should be allocated among the various categories of applicants and gives to the *o 0 Congress the power of veto by concurrent resolution. Some 51.000 quota numbers were left unused in the fiscal year just ended. Once again. we must resort to another urgently necessary. last minute stopgap device. which should have been made unnecessary by enactment of the long overdue. overall quota system reform which has been promised for this session. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be permitted to remain at the desk for 2 days to give Senators who might wish to cosponsor the bill an opportunity to do so.
Keywords matched
quota system immigrants