Speech #890119660

This is a day I have looked forward to for 17 years. This is legislation I have worked for since I first entered Congress in 1949. To the members of the Judiciary Committee. and especially to my colleagues on the Immigration and Nationality Subcommittee. and our subcommittee chairman. the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. FEIGHANI. I pay tribute now for a job well done. And particularly I must single out for praise the enlightened statesmanship of the distinguished dean of the House and chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. Through years of discouragement and struggle he has carried forward the torch of hope that our outdated and discriminatory immigration laws would some day be discarded and replaced by policies that would meet Americas need in this scientific and technological era and that would be in accord with our countrys traditions and ideals. The legislation before us today will accomplish these objectives. And It will do justice to American humanity and conscience. We cannot look back at our past immigration policy with any pride. It was shortsighted. discriminatory and. moreover. unworkable. The core of that inflexible and inequitable policy is the national origins quota system. This system was conceived 40 years ago. when a pattern of discrimination prevailed. During the first decade of the 20th century the vast increase of immigration to the United States created an uneasiness. an uneasiness accentuated during periods of economic crisis. then the perplexities in the wake of World War I abetted the already existing but baseless fear of the unknown. Yet year after year. since 1924. events have shown the futility of existing law. The needs of our country and of other countries resulting from wars. revolutions. and natural disasters could not break through the barrier of the quota bonds. Again and again emergency legislation has been called for. and Congress has acted painfully and reluctantly. And. of course. each new enactment has taken some of the substance from existing law. Following World War II we passed two Displaced Persons Acts. then in 1953 the Refugee Relief Act. In 1958 we had to enact special legislation to grant permanent residence to the Hungarian refugee victims of Soviet terrorism in the 1956 uprising. Two lawsin 1958 and again in 1960had to be passed to deal with the problem of Portuguese victims of the earthquake in the Azores and the Dutch expelled from Indonesia. Since 1957. in fact. every Congress has been called upon to enact legislation to meet needs impossible to fulfill within the rigid quota system. These laws have covered highly skilled specialists. relatives of U.S. citizens and permanently residing aliens. as well as refugees. These continuing breaches in the quota wall show beyond doubt that it now remains on the legislative books as nothing but a testament to chaos and disorder. In every new Congress. since I came to the House in 1949. I have introduced bills to repeal the odious national origins quota systema system that by its discrimination and Inflexibility is an injustice to thousands of citizens and residents separated from their loved ones. The daily contact that we on the Immigration and Nationality Subcommittee have with private bills reemphasizes the need to reunite families and is a forcible reminder of the miserable anticipation caused by separation. Perhaps I have been particularly close to the plight of many of our citizens who have been unable to have their families join them from overseas. And this plight has not fallen equally on all citizens.