Speech #890120706

Mr. Chairman. the purpose of this bill. according to the committee report. page 8. and according to the author of the bill. is the elimination of the national origins system as the basis for the selection of immigrants to the United States. If that were true. I would have no particular concern. although I am convinced the scrapping of our national origins system will be unfortunate for the future of our country. The system we have has worked well. has stood the test of time. and I think we should leave well enough alone. My chief objection to this bill is that it very substantially increases the number of immigrants who will be admitted each year. and it shifts the mainstream of immigration from western and northern Europethe principal source of our present populationto Africa. Asia. and the Orient. Let us first discuss the numbers. In round figures. we are now admitting 300.000 new Immigrants each year to this country. including quota and nonquota. The annual quota for European countries is. roughly. 158.000 per year. But only about 100.000 of this number come in each year. Under the Celler bill. now being debated. instead of 100.000 being admitted. there will be a total of 170.000an increase of approximately 70.000 annually. Added to that are parents. spouses. and unmarried minor children of citizens. In addition to the 70.000 who will be admitted under this bill. there will be immigrants from Jamaica and TrinidadTobago. numbering several thousand per year. The Celler bill repeals the AsiaPacifictriangle provision. now a part of our Immigration and Nationality Act. This is of grave concern to me. That provision requires quota chargeability on the basis of racial ancestry. and has traditionally been very useful and effective in curbing the great pressures for more immigrants to be admitted from the more overpopulated areas of the world. The socalled triangle includes more than onehalf of all the people of the earth. By repealing the triangle. the Celler bill will admit as many as 20.000 a year from each of those countries that now have an annual quota of 100.