Speech #890146019

It was cosponsored by Senator Lehman and by the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House . That bill would have established a worldwide ceiling of 250.000 annually. It would have extended the ceiling to all immigration from the Western Hemisphere. from whence immigrants would have been treated on exactly the same basis as immigrants from across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Senator Lehman included this analysis of the 1955 CellerLehman bill: A major feature of the proposed act is its consolidation. within the quota. of all general Immigration. including immigration from the Western Hemisphere. This has been done in order to put all foreign countries on the same basis consistent with the best interests and needs of the United States. Thus the proposed act does not give nonquota status. as present law does. to aliens born in the Western Hemisphere. with the right to immigrate to the United States without limitation as to number. In additionand this is a vital featurea nonquota status is given to parents as well as to children and spouses of American citizens (sec. 102(a) (19(A)). At the same time that nonquota status is given to parents of American citizens. the proposed act deprives aliens born in the Western Hemisphere of their nonquota status. as already described. The effect of these changes is to confine the nonquota status to very special classes of immigrants--children. spouses. and parents of citizens. professors. ministers. and one or two other technical categoriesand to place all general immigration. including immigraCXI1618 tion from the Western Hemisphere. under the quota system. The bill we are considering today treats prospective immigrants from the Western Hemisphere more favorably than they would have been treated under the bill cosponsored by Senator Lehman and Congressman CELLER. May I add for the RECORD the names of these additional cosponsors of this legislation in 1955: The now Vice President of the United States. HUBERT HUMPHREY. the deceased Senator Kefauver of Tennessee. the deceased former President of the United States.