Speech #890112124

Mr. Speaker. before the House votes on the bill. H.R. 25&0. to amend our immigration laws. I suggest that we should look behind the facade of labels and catchphrases which gives this legislation its apparent appeal. There can be no more important legislation than that dealing with the lifeblood of our Nation and we ought to tinker with it only after the most careful scrutiny. because this Nation is not just forests. cities. mountains and prairies. it is people. During the past fiscal year. under existing law there were admitted into the United States a total of 292.248 aliens for permanent residence. By categories. these were as follows: 102.844 quota immigrants. and 189.404 nonquota immigrants. Of the nonquota immigrants. 139:284 were quotafree Western Hemisphere immigrants and 50.120 were relatives or refugees. Now. how would the numerical limitations be affected by the proposed bill? First. instead of 102.844 who were admitted as quota immigrants. we woud receive 170.000 prescribed in the bill. In other words. there would be an increase of 67.156 in this category alone. Next. the extension of quotafree status to parents of citizens would mean that 5 years after the immigration of an allen to these shores and his acquisition of citizenship. two more could be added quota free. Mr. Speaker. the elimination of the national origins quota system. as provided in the bill H.R. 2580. would do much more than change the cultural pattern of our immigrationserious as this would be. It would have a direct effect on the numbers who would be pouring into this country from nonquota countries. Approximately onehalf of the population of the world is located in countries circumscribed by the AsiaPacific triangle of the present immigration law. Under the present law. these orientals are admissible only under quotas fixed for orientals. Now. what will be the effect of removal of the AsiaPacific triangle provision and the elimination of place of birth as a criterion in making a quota charge?