Speech #900104746

Mr. Speaker. remedy as it did many of the irrational and inequitable policies of our previous laws. the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 contains certain defectsdefects which undercut specific policies embodied in that legislation. Under the present law certain aliens registered in the fifth preference category for immigration into the United States find themselves in a situation which is clearly inconsistent with the policy of equality of treatment and that favoring reunification of familiespolicies which are fundamental to our new philosophy regarding the treatment of aliens who wish to immigrate to the United States. Mr. Speaker. as I will explain in greater detail. the effect of the immigration law is to discriminate against Italian brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens compared to brothers and sisters of other nationalities applying for permanent immigration visas. The existing situation is such that an Italian brother and sister as well as his spouse and children. on behalf of whom a petition for immigration under the fifth preference category is filed today. will wait at the minimum 10 years before he will receive a visa. A more realistic estimate Is that he will wait 15 to 20 years. In comparison. one from any of the other 33 nations for which the fifth preference is oversubscribed. for whom a similar petition Is filed. will probably be required to wait. in most cases. no longer than 1 or 2 years before receiving an immigration visa. Conversely. an Italian eligible for fifth preference status must have filed over 12 years ago in order to receive an immigration visa. An alien. holding fifth preference status. from any of the other 33 nations for which that category is oversubscribed. must have filed only 13 months ago in order to receive a similar visa. The Visa Office of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs of the State Department informs me that as of the end of 1966 there were nearly 100.000 Italians who had been approved for fifth preference status. Under the current law the Italian quota is 5.666 per year. but section 201 (c) and (d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 19658 U.S.C. 1151 (c) and (d)-provides that quota numbers. unused in a preceeding fiscal year are to be put in an immigration pool for use during the next fiscal year. Immigrants unable to obtain an immigration visa under the regular allotment for a specific preference category can obtain a visa from this pool during a subsequent fiscal year in accordance to their preference status and the date their petition was filed with the Attorney Generalsection 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 19658 U.S.C. 1153(c). Although the 1965 act abolishes the discriminatory national origin quota system. it does place a maximum limit of 170.000 on the number of permanent immigrants permitted to come into the United States each year from nonWestern Hemisphere countries. Section 201(a)-8 U.S.C. 1151(a). Furthermore. section 202(a)-8 U.S.C. 1152(a)-restricts the number of permanent immigrants from any one country to 20.000 per year. Special immigrants defined by section 101(a) (27)-8 U.S.C. 1101(a) (27)-and immediate relatives of U.S. citizensdefined in section 201(b)-8 U.S.C. 1151(b)-as children. spouses and parents of a citizen of the United Statesare not subject to the numerical limitations. Under -section 203(a)(5)-B U.S.C. 1153(a)(5)-24 percent of the 170.000 annual maximum are permitted to immigrate annually under the fifth preference classification. That is. 40.800 brothers and sisters. and their spouses and children. of U.S. citizens are permitted to come into the United States each year in the order in which their petition has been filed with the Attorney Generalsection 204(a)-8 U.S.C. 1154 (a). section 203(c)-8 U.S.C. 1153(c). I point out that the 40.800 limit includes not only brothers and sisters of United Citizens. but a spouse or childunmarried person under 21 years of agewho is not otherwise entitled to an immigrant status and the immediate issuance of a visa. or to conditional entry. under another preference categorysection 203(a)(9)-8 U.S.C. 1153(a)(9). Thus. for example. of the 3.538 permanent immigrant visas issued to fifth preference Italians between December 1. 1965. and June 30. 1966. 1.269 were for brothers or sisters of a U.S. citizen. 726 were for spouses of those brothers and sisters. and 1.543 were for children of those brothers and sistersAnnual Report of the Visa Office. Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs. U.S. Department of State. 1966. page 45. Theoretically. any visas not required for the first four preference categories can be used by fifth preference applicants. Since the Visa Office has not. as yet. compiled figures regarding permanent visas issued for the fiscal year ending June 30. 1967. my projections are based upon the number of permanent visas issued between the effective date of the. 1965 act. December 1. 1965. and June 30.. 1966. During that period the number of permanent visas issued to Italians by perference category were as follows: Preference category: Visas issued 1 ------------------------------- 53 2 ----------------------------- 4.981 3 ------------------------------- 38 4 ----------------------------- 7.763 5 -----------------------------3.538 6 ------------------------------ 845 7 ------------------------------- 14 Nonpreference ----------------------0 Total ---------------------17.232 Source: Annual Report of the Visa Office. U.S. State Department of Security and Consular Affairs. 1966. page 45. If one includes those Italians who obtained permanent status by private bills or under the adjustment of status procedure. the issuance of over 3.000 permanent visas which are not subject to numerical limitations. and the special nonquota symbol K visas. the number of permanent visas issued to Italians between December 1. 1965. and June 30. 1966. exceeded 20.500. Assuming that the total number of fifth preference visas. 40.800. available to all nonWestern Hemisphere countries were available for Italy. it would take at the very minimum over 41/2 years to admit those now holding fifth preference status because the total number of immigrants from any one country is limited to 20.000. Although theoretically possible. it Is completely unrealistic to expect the 20.000 immigration visas that can be made available to Italy to be entirely allocated to fifth preference applicants. As shown by the figures for the period December 1. 1965. through June 30. 1966. 17.232 permanent visas were issued to Italians for the first seven preference categories. I emphasize. however. that only 20.000 per year are permitted under the law to Immigrate from Italy. therefore during the first 6 months. under the new law. only 2.613 visas available for these preference categories would have remained available. That these 2.613 visas were not "used" is explained by the fact that the number of permanent visas issued during the first part of fiscal year 1966. July 1. 1965. through November 31. 1965. brought the total up to the 20.000 annual limit. Between December 1. 1965. and June 30. 1966. 12.835 visas were issued to those in the first four preference categories. 3.538 were issued to Italians in the fifth preference category. Using these figures for a rough projection. and assuming for the ease of computation that 4.000 fifth preference visas will be issued to Italians annually. it would take about 25 years for the nearly 100.000 fifth preference Italians now registered. to obtain visas. Were one to assume that only 75 percent of those now on the fifth preference waiting list will remain eligible under the law. it would take over 18 years to admit the 75.000 in this category. However. this is only half of the story. for during this period of time additional petitions in behalf of potential fifth preference Italians will be filed. The Visa Office informs me that an average of 5.000 per year of such petitions were approved 1957 and 1965. During fiscal year 1966 some 16.000 fifth preference petitions were approved. This latter figure may not provide a realistic basis for future estimates since it is likely that many filed petitions due to the abolition by the 1965 act of the previous 5.666 per year quota for Italian immigrants. Assuming. however. that 5.000 Italians file and are approved for fifth preference per year. at the end of the 25year period required to admit the existing applicants. there would be a backlog of some 120.000 new applicants. A different set of assumptions yields the following time table.