Speech #890139609

Should not the immediate family relationships be included in the 170.000? Mr. President. that would attack the very basis of the pending legislation. aside from the elimination of the national origins system and the AsianPacific triangle. The McCarranWalter Act. under its preference system. assigns 50 percent of all quota members to skilled aliens who have particular skills which are urgently needed in the economy of the United States. That entire preference concept has been changed in the pending legislation to one emphasizing the reunification of families. The preferences in this bill have thus been changed to provide that preferential consideration shall be given to family reunification. The first preference is for those who would come to the United States as unmarried sons and daughters of American citizens. the second preference is for family relatives of aliens. the third. and only the thfrd .preferenceand this is only 10 percentto those who have skills at the professional level. The fourth preference is given to married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. The fifth preference is given to brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens. the sixth preference is given to labor needed here because of a short supply in certain types of labor. the seventh to the refugees. and the eighth is left for what are called new seed immigrants. In this legislation. therefore. those who have particular skills are reduced to third and sixth preferences. The bill recognizes the basic human concern which Americans have for the reunification of families. We know. even looking at todays situation under the McCarranWalter Act. referring to figures from the Department of State. Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs. that there are numbers of instances of family separation caused by our immigration laws. For instance. in the Asia Pacific triangle. under the second preference of the McCarranWalter Act. covering parents of U.S. citizens 21 years of age or over and unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. there are 52 parents of American citizens who would like to come to the United States. there are 1.300 people of Chinese extraction. there are 376 Greek family separation cases. 29 from India. 39 from Iran. 25 from Iraq. 231 from Panama. 151 from Japan. 49 from Korea. 615 from the Philippines. 166 from Portugal. 318 from Turkey. and so on. These are typical examples.