Speech #890137979

I have had called to my attention many cases which have not been adjusted by special legislationof parents separated from children because the children happen to be born in some other nation. where the quota was heavily against them. as contrasted with that of their parents. It has taken years and years. and sometimes has not happened at all. to reunite those families. The reuniting of families is further enhanced by the provisions of H.R. 2580 which put parents of U.S. citizens outside the numerical limitation of 170.000 immigrants. This provision was also in the immigration reform bill which I introduced last February. I have introduced many such reform bills during my service in the Congress. In many countries which have had small quotas. many qualified people have either not been able to obtain visas or have not even tried because of the length of the waiting lists. It has sometimes taken 10 or more years before they could even remotely have hope of being reached. The abolition of the national origins quota system and the new preference system will allow competent and needed people to enter the United States. to fill positions and jobs for which there is a shortage of qualified people in this country. For example. thousands of doctors and scientists. nurses and technicians will come to the United States in the next 15 years. For those who are worried about increasing the unemployment rolls. let me point out that no onenot a preference immigrant. a nonpreference immigrant. or a special immigrant from the Western Hemispheremay enter without prior certification by the Secretary of Labor that he will not be taking the job of another American. This strict control and supervision should enable us to bring In those who can contribute to our Nation without the danger of adding people to the relief rolls. Foreign nations have often criticized the United States for the national origin quota system. and it has been without doubt a hindrance to the conduct of our foreign relations. Communist nations have used it in their propaganda as an example of the bigotry of Americansto our detriment in many parts of the world. especially the underdeveloped .countries which have small immigration quotas. but where we need to win friends. We are trying to wage a successful fight for freedom and democracy in Vietnam. We have no better way of demonstrating our faith in the people of Asia than by todays action in eliminating the AsiaPacific triangle. the most discriminatory section of an unfair system. Such action should demonstrate that we consider the peoples of Asia to be on a fully equal basis with those of the rest of the world. No longer will we single out men and women of Asiatic ancestry and tell them that they are different from others. no matter where they were born. This provision brings to an end a series of measures which laid aside the earlier Chinese exclusion laws. but which themselves were so iniquitous. Now. at long last. these peoples have been put on their rightful basis of equality. In this regard. the bill. S. 1093. which I Introduced last February. contained provisions for the immediate elimination of the national origins quota system. including the AsiaPacific triangle. I would like to address myself to the provision of the bill containing the Western Hemisphere limitation of 120.000. which constitutes the most controversial part of the bill before us. I believe in the bills authority for creating a commission to study the various aspects of immigration and population growth in the Western Hemisphere. To establish such a commission is reasonable enough. But I see no reason why. together with that commission must be Joined a numerical limitation on immigration from the Western Hemisphere. I disagree with the principle of stating a numerical limitation on immigration from that part of the world. and so voted in the subcommittee and in the full committee against the imposition of the 120.000 limitation. I say that because our special relationship with our sister Republics in the Americas was established at least 100 years ago. before the present immigration system was established. At that time the number of people we admitted from this hemisphere was 190.000. when our total population was half what it is today. The average comparable immigration from the Western Hemisphere over the past 10 years has been about 110.000. Last year. the number of nonquota status immigrants from the Western Hemisphere was somewhat in excess of 135.000. I think the limitation of 120.000 will contribute to an impairment of better Western Hemisphere relations. In which we have been so intensely interested. I refer my colleagues to the testimony of the Secretary of State at pages 98 to 100 of the House Immigration Subcommittee hearings and at page 49 of the Senate subcommittee hearings. I point out in this respect. because I think it is extremely important. that many people say we have not heard from the people in Latin America. that there does not seem to be an outcry about this situation In Latin America. But.