Speech #890185808

Madam President. last week the Michigan Committee on Immigration. together with the United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit. held a daylong conference on the Immigration Act of 1965. All of us who sponsored and worked for this change in our basic immigration policy are interested in the details of how this major revision of the law is actually working. The opening speech at the conference was delivered by Mr. James J. Hines. of the Department of State. It contained statistics on visa issuance which give us a first view of the operations under the new quota system. It would seem to me that the transition made by the Department of State under the new act has been well planned and has resulted in very little disruption. In fact. the reunion of families as a result of visa allocations being made under the pooling arrangement is most heartening. There are problems. however. which are arising in terms of delays in visa issuance resulting from the provisions of section 212(a) (14) which require special labor certification for potential immigrants other than relatives. The procedures for obtaining these labor certifications and clearing them through the regional and Washington offices of the Bureau of Employment Security of the Department of Labor apparently have resulted in many weeks of delay. At this time. we do not have a clear enough analysis of the situation to determine whether these delays result from the specific provisions of the act and regulations or whether they are primarily the result of administrative difficulties. including lack of adequate staff to undertake this responsibility.