Speech #890038186

It undermines our foreign relations. It presents to the world a totally wrong image of the American character. The law should be changed. and I. for one. will not cease my advocacy of reform until the national origins system is struck from our body of law. I said earlier I hoped to show that the system has outlived what usefulness it originally possessed. that it is a relic we have readily ignored. The Immigration Services report substantiates the argument: Japan. for example. has a yearly quota of 185. During 1964. 3.680 Japanese arrived in the United States as immigrants. Italys quota is 5.666. but 13.245 Italians emigrated to this country last year. Spains quota is 250. yet 2.252 Spanish immigrants were admitted. The great majority of the immigrants who entered the country over and above their national quotas were admitted because they were the wives. husbands. or children of U.S. citizens. Persons in any one of these three categories last year alone accounted for almost 28.000 Immigrations from Europe. almost 8.000 from Asia and about 1.000 from Africa. We accepted 189.404 nonquota immigrants in 1964. Even a fleeting perusal of the patterns of immigration Into this country points up the mystifying nature of our immigration policy. We adamantly cling to an arbitrary quota of 308 for Greece. but we ignore the quota every year by admitting 10 times as many Greeks who are married to. or the children of. a U.S. citizen. Preferential treatment of relatives of our citizens conforms with our natural instincts and has a rightful place in our immigration policies. It stems from precisely the opposite impulses that govern our rigid. unfeeling quotas. Preferred treatment for relatives and quota exemption for our neighboring American countries are but two of the many mature aspects of our immigration laws which override and repudiate the national origins system. Among the enlightened amendments to our immigration laws have been the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. the Hungarian Parolee Act of 1958 and the Fair Share RefugeeEscapee Act of 1960. Each act exempted refugees from the quota restrictions which would have delayed their entry into this country for many years. Moreover. Congress has granted nonquota status to quota immigrants on five separate occasions since As a result of these and other liberalizing measures. roughly twothirds of the immigrants who came to this country during the last 10 years arrived outside the quotas. Among them were 200.000 refugees from the Castro government in Cuba. Despite the compassion the American people have shown for the people of other nations by the enactment of these humane measures. and although they have had the laudable effect of subverting the national origins system. we continue to employ a largely discredited numbers game which tells the Republic of India. bluntly and unequivocally: We want only 100 of your people a year. Mr. Speaker. I prefer not to believe that the national origins system represents the wishes of the American people. that it is the calculated. supercilious insult it appears to be. I believe. instead. that the system is an anachronismsomewhat like a cracked and dirty window we cant see through very well. but have not taken the trouble to wash or replace. The fact that so much special legislation has been passed to nullify or suspend the quotas implies a deep dissatisfaction with existing law.