Speaker. the boasted basic standards by which we Americans claim to measure a man are his strength. his integrity of character. his conscientious industry. and his personal ambition. In theory his place of birth has nothing to do with the kind of person he may be. However and unfortunately. our current Immigration laws openly contradict this theory. Under present laws. it is. for instance. clearly intimated that the Malian people are about onethirteenth as acceptable for prospective American citizenship as the English and that the Greek people are about 200 times less desirable for American admittance than the English. There is similar discrimination against many other nationalities under the present system. Beyond the objective injustices projected under our current immigration regulations and restrictions I think it is very practical. in our own selfinterest. to point out the adverse effect the antiquated national origins quota method has on the prestige of the United States abroad and the operation of successful foreign policy. I earnestly feel that the great majority of our citizens desire to have our immigration laws brought more realistically into line with the traditional character and disposition of the American people in order to prove we truly mean the inspiring phrase we so often use"All men are created equal." Mr. Speaker. there is now pending before the Congress a bill. actually the first bill our late and beloved President John F. Kennedy sent to Congress. designed to remove the bias. the prejudice. the discrimination. and the injustices of our present immigration laws. This bill is known as H.R. 7700 and I myself have instroduced a bill that is practically identical to it. H.R. 8883.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration national origins quota