Speech #890138324

Mr. President. I vigorously support the immigration reform bill of 1965. Our present Immigration law has split families. forced us to forgo talents needed for American science. education. and industry. and has discriminated between peoples on the basis of the country of their birth. without regard to the hardship thus caused them. their families. and the United States. The basis for our immigration laws for the last 41 years has been a discriminatory system called the national origins system. designed to freeze the ethnic balance of our country in the form it had in Instead of asking an immigrant what he can do for America. the national origins system has asked only. "Where were you born?" Instead of setting a limit on immigration and admitting persons under that limit on the basis of their ability and desire to immigrate the national origins system has rejected many of those who have wanted to immigrate and offered permission to immigrate to people who have no such desire. The unfairness and discriminatory nature of the national origins quota system is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than by the fact that in the last 20 years Congress has acted 10 times to alleviate its hardships. and in the last decade alone has passed hundreds of pieces of special legislation to allow 373.000 individuals into the country who were ineligible for admission under our present immigration laws. For as long as I have been in the Congress. I have worked for a reasonable reform in the immigration laws. I have introduced numerous bills dealing with immigration reform and have cosponsored others. My efforts and those of my colleagues to bring rationality and compassion into our immigration laws have been met with some success. Four times since 1957 we have made special provision for relatives of American citizens and for orphans. Six times since 1948 we have enacted laws to allow immigration by refugees. And every year many private immigration bills are passed. each of them intended to help people who are caught up unjustly in the rigidities of the national origins quota system. But systematic and thoroughgoing revision of the unfair and discriminatory aspects of our immigration laws has yet to be accomplished. This year I am cosponsor of S. 500. the Senate version of the bill now pending before the Senate. to make the changes in our immigration law which our economy needs. which our citizens want. and which American tradition demands. This immigration reform bill is not designed to increase immigration. In fact. it will not authorize a significant increase over the number of immigrants now allowed to enter the United States annually. There will be some increase in immigration to the United States. but not more than three tenthousandths of 1 percent a year of our present population. The reason for this increase is not primarily that the bill authorizes more immigrants. but rather because the bill provides for more efficient and fairer administration of the whole immigration system. And most of this increase is devoted to a special category to admit up to 10.200 refugees. a change which I have long wanted to see made. The immigration reform bill will authorize the immigration of 170.000 persons from outside the Western Hemisphere each year. Immigration from within the Western Hemisphere will be limited to 120.000 a year. Previously it has been unrestricted. If these quotas are filled every year. our total annual immigration will amount to litle more than 1 12 percent of our total population this year. By 1980. it will be barely more than 1 percent of what our population will be in that year. Within these overall limits. permission to immigrate will be allocated on a firstcome. firstserved basis. with first preference to the families of immigrants already here and a 20.000person annual limitation on any one country. The bill also gives preference to people whose professional. scientific. or artistic ability will substantially benefit the United States. The bill contains a new feature designed to protect U.S. workers from unemployment. It requires each immigrant to obtain a certificate from the Secretary of Labor that his presence in the United States will not affect U.S. employment. wages. or working conditions. In short. Mr. President. the immigration reform bill replaces outmoded prejudice with rationality. It provides compassion for separated families and protection for the United States worker. It replaces distinctions based on nationality with distinctions based on individual worth and qualification. The immigration reform bill will replace the existing law which makes a mans ability to be reunited with his family depend on the country in which he was born. It will replace the law which has kept from our shores people whose skills we need to make our Nation stronger. It will replace the law which has kept us from helping refugees from natural and manmade horrors to make a useful life for themselves and for our society in America. It will replace a law which has contradicted the American heritage. All of us in this country who do not descend from Indians are immigrants. Our Nations greatness is as much due to our diversity and our ability to live together as to any other factor in American life. On our Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor we have written: Give me your tired. your poor.