Speech #890120794

Mr. Chairman. I feel there are few areas in our law which more urgently demand reform than our present unfair system of choosing the immigrants we will allow to enter the United States. particularly under the archaic and inequitable national origins quota system. This system embarrasses us in the eyes of other nations. it creates cruel and unnecessary hardship for many of our own citizens with relatives abroad. and it is a source of loss to the economic and creative strength of our country. While I believe that our immigration laws must first serve the best interests of our Nation and must contain a clearly defined system of selective controls. I feel that the provisions contained in H.R. 2580 are far better than the national origins quota system which makes no attempt at all to distinguish which immigrants will best serve the interests of our Nation. As President Kennedy so . aptly noted in his book "A Nation of Immigrants": The use of a national origins system is without basis In either logic or reason. It neither satisfies a national need nor accomplishes an international purpose. In an age of interdependence among nations such a system is an anachronism. for it discriminates among applicants for admission into the United States on the basis of accident of birth. It Is my belief that the bill under discussion would make it easier to bring to the United States persons with special skills and attainments that we need and want. it would reunite thousands of our citizens with members of their families from whom they are now needlessly separated. it would remove from our law a discriminatory system of selecting immigrants that is a standing affront to millions of our citizens and our friends overseas. and. it would provide for the needs of refugees and serve our traditional policy of aiding those made homeless by catastrophe or oppression. In essence. this measure would accomplish all these necessary goals without damaging the interests of any person or group. either here or overseas. It is obvious that if a change were not necessary in our immigration laws. four Presidents would never have called attention to this serious flaw in our legislation. Some sections of our immigration laws are particularly unjust. such as that which involves the AsiaPacific triangle where the quotas are not on the basis of ones place of birth but rather on their racial ancestry. As our distinguished Secretary of State noted: "It represents an overt statutory discrimination against more than onehalf of the worlds population." Of almost equal inequity is the fact that much of the total quota goes unused each year. Thus. while England and Ireland are assigned 83.000 persons a year. or about onehalf the total for all nations. and use only about 32.000 persons annually. most of the other countries of the world must suffer under small quotas which are. in the greater majority of cases. heavily oversubscribed. Our great Nation was built by immigrants of courage and ability who came from many lands. We have benefited from the genius of men who came to our country. often seeking religious. political or intellectual freedommen such as Albert Einstein. Neils Bohr.