Speech #890120706

Liberia. Ethiopia. and every other nation in the world outside the Western Hemisphere. Thus. we will decide here today whether we want to undertake a major shift in the makeup of our main immigration stream from western and northern Europe. to Asia. Africa. and the Orient. At the same time we will decide whether we want to increase the net total of immigrants to this country by some 100.000 or more each year. The elimination of the national origins quota system. as proposed here. 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 of people who would be pouring In from nonquota countries. When the AsiaPacifictriangle provision is removed. and place of birth as a criterion in making a quota charge is eliminated. the nonquota countries of the Western Hemisphere will then become simply way stations in an everincreasing migration to the United States from the overpopulated countries of Asia and the orient. In the future this will undoubtedly bring about the admission to this country of tens of thousands of people from the Far East and Asia. I understand. for example. there are more than half a million Chinese now living in South America. many of whom will be made eligible for admission to this country if the Celler bill is enacted. -Mr. Chairman. there is a serious security threat which would result in the expected substantial increase in Asiatic migration to these shores. At the present time. the flow of Asiatics to this country is checked by the simple device of quota limitation to which all Asiatics are chargeable. With a substantial increase in Immigration of Asiatics. comIng not only from the Orient. but from every country in which they reside. the problem of procuring background information to screen out subversives becomes Increasingly difficult. Moreover. most of the background information regarding Communist activities would be located in oriental Communist countries. and hence unavailable to our security officials. Furthermore. the language barriers. with the many dialects unfamiliar to our immigration officers. would only compound the danger inherent in an attempt to screen out security threats. and I have no doubt tlat the international Communist conspiracy will avail itself of the opportunity to increase its penetration of our country. The passage of this bill will present an inviting opportunity. It has been argued that because some European countries now have a larger annual quota than others. this country regards the people of the larger quota nations as being better people than those in countries with the lower quotas. That is a ridiculous argument. Immigration laws. like trade laws and the like. come under the normal exercise of sovereign power. Under our present law. and under the Celler bill. we make 10 Argentines. for example. admissible. where only 1 Italian may be admitted. Does that mean that the author of this bill. which perpetuates that provision in the law. :egards an Argentine as being 10 times as good as an Italian?