Speaker. I enjoyed a thrilling privilege last Sunday. I stood near the President of the United States as he signed into law the Immigration Act recently passed by Congress. Along with other Members of Congress and interested citizens. I watched this historic ceremony which fulfilled. beneath the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. an important part of the American dream. The Presidents signature marked one of the finest accomplishments of the administration during this year. It signaled the reform of our immigration laws by abolishing the discriminatory national origins systems in favor of a system of selection designed to reunite families and admit persons with special skills which will be of positive benefit to our country. Under the national origins system. the admission of a person to this country as a quota immigrant depended far more on the accident of where he was born than on his ability to contribute to our society. or on his relationship to a family in this country. As a result. persons with no special talents to offer. and no family connections here. were often favored for admission in preference to those with high attainments or close family ties. For instance. an American citizen could import a housemaid from northern Europe more easily than he could bring his own mother here. if she had been born in southern or eastern Europe. The same situation confronted an American hospital with an urgent need for a medical specialist who was born in a lowquota country. Besides being discriminatory. morally wrong. and hurtful to our own people. the national origins system was harmful in our foreign relations and out of harmony with the best in American traditions. Presidents Truman. Eisenhower.
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immigrant Immigration immigration national origins system