Speech #890136569

Mr. President. I support the pending legislation to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The bill is modest and right. It falls in Americas mainstream of morality and commonsense. The bill represents a broadly based consensus on the kind of reform that is needed. It carries out goals sought by 33 Senators. from both political parties. who joined with me to introduce this legislation following President Johnsons immigration message to Congress last January. The heroes. Mr. President. of this long and historic struggle to achieve the abolition of the national origins system of selectivity. are properly tens of thousands of Americans. They have organized through community. religious and fraternal groups to achieve the victory now being consummated in the Congress. It is to these Americans. who in years past opened their homes. their communities. their businesses to welcome the refugee. the relative and the homeless of the world. These citizens conducted community conferences and urged their national organizations to press for immigration reform. Today is their victory. It is impossible today to list each citizen. each fraternal chapter. each religious society that shares in this achievement. But two national organizations deserve special mention. For many years the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference has led in education and information. Through national conferences and community workshops the hopes of Americans for this achievement were effectively directed. This year an additional citizens group. the National Committee for Immigration Reform. whose outstanding membership is headed by former Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. has organized to insure passage of this legislation. Indeed. this proposal is supported by the most distinguished of our citizens. as well as the humble from every corner of the Nation. It is as though each wants to help brighten the light that shines its welcome in the torch of liberty. To the peoples of Europe chiefly. but to others as well. the United States has long been a haven of opportunity and refuge. The stream of immigrants who have passed through Americas gates are indeed the Nations true wealth. Today. Americas worth and strengthmorally. intellectually. politically. socially. economicallyrest upon the contributions of people of many national backgrounds and races. This is the unquestioned genius of the American experience. Throughout most of our history. accepted national policy was to encourage a free flow of immigration. And even though. beginning in 1882. our immigration history reveals a slow evolution froman open to a restricted policy. the gates stoop open to most until after the end of World War I. Several things then worked to generate a widespread demand for immigration curbs. Among them were postwar urbanization. economic dislocation. waves of fear. and suspicion. and the degenerate nativism practiced by the Ku Klux Klan and its allies. The Quota Acts of 1921 and 1924 followed. This legislation of the 1920s marked the turning point in Americas immigration policy. A dual control system went into effect. which continues to our time. The first selection of immigrants was through the application of such standards of admissibility as health. literacy. security. and financial responsibility. These are sound and right. and have been retained in the pending bill. The second control was restriction of quota immigration to a specified maximum number per year based on nation of birth. No responsible citizen. Mr. President. questions the rightness of any nation to regulate immigration. But more than an attempt to set a reasonable rate of immigration. with reasonable standards. was involved in the dual control system. It was framed by an irrational elementthe national origins quota concept. which said in echoing words that the people of some nations are more welcome to America than others. We know the story well. Unjustified ethnic and racial barriers became the basis of U.S. immigration policy. The end of World War II brought hope for basic reform. especially following Americas welcome to thousands of homeless and destitute people through the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. But this hope was shortlived. In 1952. over President Trumans veto. Congress enacted the present basic statute. the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Revision and codification of immigration law was overdue. But so far as the basic selection of immigrants was concerned. the 1952 act followed the discriminatory policy of the twenties. In his 1952 veto message. President Truman said: I am sure that with a little more time and a little more discussion in this country. the public conscience and the good sense of the American people will assert themselves and we shall be in a position to enact an immigration and naturalization policy that will be fair to all. That time has now come. Moral and national interest reasons justify a new immigration policy. Aside from its racial and ethnic discriminations. the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 fails to give sufficient recognition to the principle of family unity. It fails to give sufficient recognition to the great dimensions of the world refugee problem and the urgent need in this country for special skill immigrants. Little wonder President Kennedy labeled the present law "an anachronism." a system "without basis in either logic or reason." a policy which "neither satisfies a national need nor accomplishes an international purpose." The major objectives of the pending legislation are: First. to restore equality and fair play in our method of selecting immigrants. Discriminatory provisions against inmigrants from eastern and southern Europe. token quotas for Asian. and African countries. and implications of race superiority in the AsiaPacific triangle concept. have no place in the public policy of the United States. A newcomer should not arrive at our Nations door apologizing for his parentage and birthplace. Such a system Is blatantly unAmerican. True. we need a careful selection of immigrants. We should be selectivebut not with theories of racial or ethnic superiority. Congress must enact a statute that will be discriminatory in the best meaning of the wordon the grounds of individual worth and capacity. on the grounds of national security. and of economic and scientific benefit. on the principles of family unity and asylum to the homeless and oppressed. Such discrimination is tolerable andin our Nations interest. On such grounds alone. I urge support of the pending measurefor it removes the purely arbitrary barriers to immigration on the basis of race and national origins. it substitutes a new formula based on equality and fair play. it applies this formula without exception to the people of all nations. In referring to the national origins system in his immigration message. President Johnson said: That system is incompatible with our basic American tradition * * * The fundamental. longtime American attitude has been to ask not where a person comes from but what are his personal qualities * * * Violation of this tradition by the national origins quota system does incalculable harm. The procedures imply that men and women from some countries are. just because of where they come from. more desirable citizens than others. We have no right to disparage the ancestors of millions of our fellow Americans in this way.