Speech #890139843

President. I support Senate passage of H.R. 2580. as reported by the Committee on the Judiciary. although I wish to express my opposition to the provision which would modify the current nonquota status of nations of the Western Hemisphere and impose a quota of 120.00 annually. effective July 1. 1968. I was pleased to be a sponsor of S. 500. the original proposal to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act. which is similar in general to the bill being considered today. This measure will provide a much needed and long overdue change in immigration policy. It is a limited measure. since it does not make any substantial increase in the number of immigrants who can enter each year. Its significance lies in its abolition of the quota based on national originsa system which for the past 40 years has imposed a discriminatory procedure based on the assumed desirability or undesirability of certain ethnic and racial groups. It is unfortunate that the national origins system was ever approved and unfortunate also that it was not removed sooner. Times have changed and history has moved swiftly. We have in recent years. and again in this Congress. enacted significant legislation to safeguard civil and human rights and to protect the equality of all before the law. There have been Supreme Court decisions and executive orders to eliminate segregation and discrimination based on race. The bill now before the Senate is consistent with these measures and restores to our immigration policy the fundamental principle that persons are to be judged as individuals and not on the basis of race or ethnic origin. In this respect H.R. 2580 is not a new departure. rather. it represents a return to the nondiscriminatory policy which existed at the beginning of our Nation. Many of the immigrants who came to the United States in the 19th century were impoverished and unskilled. others were religious or political refugees. outcasts from their homeland. They and their children proved themselves. Immigrants have demonstrated that opportunity and individual effort. rather than racial or ethnic origin. are the essential qualities of citizens. The bill has many other provisions which are commendable. It removes the mechanical and rigid procedures which have operated to keep families separated. It reflects positively our concern for the importance of the family. The present laws have been unworkable as regards the problem of refugees. and the bill adJusts this situation. The mentally retarded and those who have suffered mental illness will be considered in a similar manner to those who are classified as tubercular. and the bill removes the total exclusion of those afflicted with epilepsy. In these and other provisions the bill reflects understanding and concern for the dignity of the individual person. I believe that the committee amendment to place a ceiling on immigrants from nations of the Western Hemisphere is unnecessary and unwise. There is no pressing problem of numbers which requires this limitation and in any case the qualitative controls applying to all immigrants have set adequate limitations in the past. Of course. there Is no reason in theory why we could not have worldwide or hemispheric quotas. but there are many reasons based on tradition why we should not impose a numerical quota by law on immigrants from the Western Hemisphere. Mexico and Canada are neighbors with whom we have thousands of miles of common border and there is no need to place their citizens who wish to emigrate to the United States under a general quota limitation. All the nations of the Western Hemisphere share with us the settlement of the New World and a common effort to develop free and independent governments. Our nonquota policy of the past was never intended and never interpreted as discriminatory against nations outside the Western Hemisphere. rather. it was and is a mark of mutual respect and friendship and a symbol of the good neighbor policy.