Speech #890301477

era Congressional opposition to any alterations in the letter of the McCarran law with its national origins quota system continued through the next decade. The first AFLCIO convention urged that "the McCarranWalter Act be revised and liberalized. to reflect the democratic and humanitarian traditions of our country and to provide an immigration policy attuned to the present requirements of our own nation and of the entire free world." "8 The following year saw some halfhearted attempts to pass reform legislation in Congress. but as the 1957 AFLCIO convention put it in the Executive Council Report. Congress was "not ready to enact such basic reform."" Even President Dwight D. Eisenhowers compromise bill. further watered down in debate. failed to pass. At the 1957 convention In Atlantic City. the unions set forth guidelines for immigration legislation: (1) the United States can absorb at least 250.000 immigrants annually. without counting nonquota immigrants in this figure. (2) the national origins system is discriminatory. and produces resentment abroad. it should be replaced by standards of family reunion. the technical and professional needs of America. refugee asylum. national Interest in general. and resettlement. (3) a balance must be struck between efforts to screen out subversives and fair. democratic administrative procedures. both for aliens and for naturalized citizens. (4) temporary labor programs should be eliminated. or used as a last resort when the need is both genuine and great. such programs should be instituted "only under fully enforced international agreements". the Mexican contract labor program needs a great 0The report cited as examples: Latvia. quota halved for 320 years. until A.D. 2274. Estonia until 2146. Lithuania until 2090. Yugoslavia until 2114. Poland (quota of 6.488) until 2000. "AFL. 74th Convention. 1955. pp. 124126. "sAmerican Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Ist Constitutional Convention. 1955 (Washington: AFLCIO. 1955). pp. 104105. "9 AFLCIO. 2nd Convention. 1957. pp. 294deal of correction to protect both American and Mexican laborers.70 Finale The evolution of labors policy on immigration had reached its final stage by 1955. and the succeeding decade was merely to record the growth of similar opinions in Congress. influenced. no doubt. partly by big labor. In articles and statements in labor union magazines. in policy declarations by the Executive Council. in testimony before congressional hearings. the same policy recurs time and again until 1965. It took ten years. but Americas immigration policy did finally change.