Speech #890055095

We must consider the unemployment of at least 5 percent of our working population. Our Nation is already populated from coast to coast. Today we must seek the skills and talents which new immigrants can bring to our shores. We must seek the quality of their contribution to our Nation. not the quantity of numbers. Let us fashion a new law which eliminates all discrimination on the basis of national origin and asks only of a man what he can contribute to the American civilization of 1965. Because I am so deeply concerned with the nature of our future immigration laws. I have Introduced this week my own immigration bill. H.R. 8502. I am in general agreement with the basic purpose of H.R. 2580. the administration measure. but I feel that certain important improvements incorporated in my bill are necessary. The Schweiker bill. like the administration bill. would eliminate the discriminatory national origins system devised in 1924 and would establish a preference schedule for immigrants which is based on skills and talents rather than upon race and nationality. The Schweiker bill would also phase out existing quotas over a 5year period. The admission of immigrants on a first come. first served. skill criteria basis would be a builtin feature. But there are certain problems which the Schweiker bill would reach which the present administration bill does not reach. For example. the Schweiker bill would: First. Eliminate all national origin preference of immigrants. including existing preferences for Western Hemisphere nationals. Second. Establish an annual ceiling of 315.000 to cover all immigrants. both quota and nonquota. Third. Endorse emergency migration for all political refugees without giving national origins preference to any particular geographic area. Fourth. Avoid possible influx of unskilled labor at times of high national unemployment by using better controls than H.R. 2580 provides. Fifth. Establish a Selective Immigration Board rather than the proposed mixed congressional and executive Immigration Advisory Board.