Speech #890060332

I can state without qualification that these hearings have been completely objective and nonpartisan so far as the members of the subcommittee are concerned. We sought nothing more than the facts but all the facts with respect to every issue involved. These hearings have established one central fact beyond any doubt. that our present method of immigrant admissions. Involving several systems. is inadequate. misleading. and in need of immediate revision. We have reached a point in our national development where a selective system of immigrant admissions with qualitative and quantitative controls fixed by law cannot be avoided. The bill which I introduced today calls for such a selective immigration system. The national origins quota system has been made the major issue in the hearings before our subcommittee. The claim has been made that the national origins quota system regulates immigration into the United States. That claim cannot be supported with facts. The official record shows that over the past 10 years quota immigration accounts for no more than onethird of our annual immigrant admissions. The remaining twothirds are admitted -as nonquota immigrants. When the national origins quota system was enacted into law more than 40 years ago. provision was also made for nonquota status for natives of the independent countries of the Western Hemisphere. This provided two systems of immigrant admissions. one the quota system and the other the nonquota system. The quota system fixed a ceiling on the number of immigrants we would ad. mit each year from any country outside the Western Hemisphere. based upon a percentage of the number of people in the United States whose origin was traceable to such foreign country according to the 1920 national census. The nonquota system had no numerical limitations or restrictions of any type. What results have these systems produced? By 1949. 25 years after these two systems were enacted into law. we find that nonquota immigration had equalled quota immigration. In the course of 15 years. between 1949 and 1964. nonquota immigration has doubled quota immigration. What the ratio will be in 5 or 10 years hence is a matter of speculation. but I am certain that nonquota immigration will continue to increase over quota immigration unless Congress takes corrective action. This trend is inevitable because of the introduction of the nonquota concepts to the quota countries external to the Western Hemisphere. Special public legislation granting nonquota status to classes of aliens in the quota countries has made a myth of the national origins quota system. Since enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1952. there have been no less than 10 amendments to the law authorizing immigrant admissions outside the quota system. As a consequence the mathematical quota set for -many countries has little relation to the number of immigrants we actually admit from those countries. Here are a few comparisons between the annual quota set by law and the annual average number of immigrants admitted over the past 10 years: Greece: Quota is 308 per year. actually admitted. 2.666 per year. Italy: Quota is 5.666 per year.-actually * admitted. 15.685 per year. Spain: Quota is 250 per year. actually admitted. 1.264 per year.