Speech #880292658

Speaker. I rise today to call the attention of the House to a matter deeply affecting more than 190 million Americans. I refer to our complex immigration laws. Our immigration laws affect. in some way and to some degree. everyone now living in the United States. Obviously. they will affect generations to come. Immigration should not be a subject for demogoguery. It is not a subject which either party should cynically try to exploit for partisan advantage in an election year. Immigration is an issue on which all men of good will should agree. since it affects all of us. On August 10. the gentleman from Ohio. Congressman MICHAEL A. FEIGHAN. introduced H.R. 12305 to make our immigration laws more equitable and practical. I introduced an identical measureH.R. 12576on September 4 to express my position and the position of the Republican Party on immigration. and to demonstrate bipartisanship. The Congress now has two measures before itthe highly partisan. and thoroughly unsound and unworkable measureH.R. 7700proposed by the administration. and a sound. bipartisan measure proposed by Chairman FEIGHAN and myself. The American people want justice in immigration laws. They will support a fair bill. Today I ask Members of the House to compare the two measures and to decide which best serves the interests of all the American people. First. H.R. 12305 and H.R. 12576the FeighanDerwinski bills. support the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that Congress alone has the right to regulate immigration into the United States. The administration billH.R. 7700would have Congress delegate its authority to the executive branch. Such action would be a clear abandonment by Congress of its constitutional authority. It would mean a further step away from a government of laws to a government by men. Examine this first point in detail. The FeighanDerwinski bills would create a threeman board to review immigration laws and to report its findings and recommendations for improvement in these laws to the Congress. The administration bill would create a sevenman committee whose purpose would be to advise the President and not the Congress on how the immigration quotas are to be allocated each year. Under H.R. 7700the administration billthe President could accept or ignore the recommendations. and allocate the quotas as he wished. Aside from the advice he gets from the sevenman committee. the Presidentunder the administration billwould have the right to reserve up to 50 percent of quotas for allocation as he sees fit. None knows what would come out of committee recommendations or from the President. Immigrationunder the administration billwould become an international political football. The State Department would unduly influence the manipulation of immigrants. Immigrants for centuries have flocked to the United States to seek freedom and opportunitynot regimentation. The administration bill creates a government of men. rather than a government of law. a politically regimented immigration law. The FeighanDerwinski bills. on the other hand. conform to the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. They uphold the authority of Congress over immigration. They uphold government by law. Second. the FeighanDerwlnski bills provide by statute for the reuniting of families. These bills state that authorized but unused immigration quota numbers can be used to reunite parents. sons. daughters. brothers and sisters. spouses and children with aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States. May I point out that the reunification of families now separated because of immigration restrictions reflects the plank on immigration in the Republican Party platform of 1964. Our belief in the sanctity of the home and the integrity of the family requires this provision. The administration billH.R. 7700does not provide for any such reuniting of families by statute. leaving such action entirely up to the discretion of a sevenman board. whose decisions on this subject are unknown and may change to suit prevailing political winds. Third. the FeighanDerwinski bills maintain present total ceilings on quotas. Also these bills would authorize the use of unused quota numbers to benefit those quota areas which are now oversubscribed. and where there are large waiting lists for entry into the United States. Specifically. the bills would be of great help to the huge backlog awaiting immigration from Italy. Greece. Poland. Yugoslavia. and other countries. The administration bill would establish new nonquota areas from which we could expect a large influx of new immigrants. completely changing our historic Immigration pattern. In addition. the administration bill does not contain any practical vehicle to protect the American workingman from a loosely administered method of evaluating the skills of immigrants from the areas that would be. for the first time. opened up. Fourth. the FeighanDerwinski bills have a number of highly important provisions to make our immigration laws more equitable. which the administration bill does not provide. These are: Provision for legal residents of the United States of 50 years of age or over to take their examinations for citizenship in their native languages. It has been a hardship on tens of thousands of immigrants to gain the confidence in English to take and pass the examinations. Many are now the parents of sons and daughters. and even grandsons and granddaughters who are. in their own right. nativeborn citizens of the United States. This provision in the FeighanDerwinski bills would enable thousands of fine men and women to become citizens and to take their rightful place in the mainstream of American life. to which they already are contributing in full measure. The FeighanDerwinski bills provide a legal means for Chinese refugees who have been paroled into the United States to become citizens. As matters now stand. they have no legal right to apply for citizenship no matter how long they are in the United States. despite the fact that they live here. work here. and pay taxes here. The FeighanDerwinski bills remove from the present law the provision that an alien must prove that he or she will be subject to physical persecution if he or she is returned to his homeland behind the Iron Curtain. This word "physical" in the current law places escapees from Communist countries in constant jeopardy of being deported and returned to their homelands. The Polish seaman who escaped from the Batory. or Yugoslav seamen Who escape from oceangoing vessels and are now residing in the United States are threatened by deportation and return to their Communistcontrolled homelands because of this word "physical" in the law. The administration billH.R. 7700has none of these important provisions. Mr. Speaker. the FeighanDerwinski billsH.R. 12305 and H.R. 12576which. I repeat. are identical. contain other essential provisions to make our immigration laws more equitable for all American citizens. The FeighanDerwinski bills. for example. require that. in the admission of immigrants with special skills and professions. that when 20 percent of those admitted in any particular skill. trade. craft or profession are found to be not working in that occupation. the Secretary of State must cease issuing visas for such skilled immigrants. This is a selfpolicing principle. It will prove to be beneficial to a number of American industries. such as tailoring. to mention only one.