Mr. Speaker. during the first session of the 89th Congress. I strongly supported H.R. 2580the 1965 amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Actwhich was eventually enacted as Public Law 89236. One of the purposes of this legislation was to reunite thousands of our citizens with members of their families from whom they had been needlessly separated. While to a certain degree some American citizens and resident allens have been reunited with their families. my files are replete with situations where brothers and sisters have been separated for many years--in some cases. for 10 years or more. Almost all of them involve persons currently registered under the fifthpreference position of the quota for Italy. At present. visas can only be issued to persons under the Italian fifthpreference position who have "priority dates" of March 1. 1955 or earlier. Over the past 6 months. the fifthpreference position has moved forward 2 monthsfrom January 1. 1955 to March 1. 1955and I have been informed that approximately 100.000 fifthpreference Italians are awaiting visa issuance. Based upon information made available to me by the Department of State. Italy is the only country experiencing such a tremendous backlog.
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Immigration visas visa