Speech #900140282

I thank my good friend from Massachusetts. Mr. President. in view of the continuing inequities in our Immigration Act. I am very glad to cosponsor. with the senior Senator from Massachusetts . an omnibus bill to correct some of the remaining. glaring injustices that are worked on aliens under the present legislation. I congratulate the Senator from Massachusetts. too. on all the work he has done on this subject. and on the very real leadership he has shown in this field of immigration and naturalization legislation. It is a particular pleasure for me to work on and introduce this measure. since my father. when he was a Member of Congress at the time of the introduction of the original unfair first quota law. did what he couldalthough he was unsuccessfulto block it and mitigate its effects. I have become particularly conscious of the need for this legislation through my own work in past years as vice president of the International Rescue Committee and as treasurer and a director of the American Immigration Conference. Our bill addresses itself particularly toward the unfair discrimination that exists against citizens of foreign birth. those who have become Americans by choice and not by the accident of birth. Our first suggestion is that there be established within the Department of State a board of visa appeals which will be an independent office set up to review all decisions of U.S. consular officers who have either refused an immigrant visa or revoked one already issued to an alien outside of the United States who has applied for such a visa and who is an immediate relative of an American citizen. The purpose of this board. of course. is to provide a more objective method for determining the right of alien relatives of U.S. citizens to enter the United States. In a matter of such personal importance. I believe strongly that applicants who have families in this country should have the right of recourse. Second. we are calling for liberalization of visa policy which will include the admission of parents of an alien who is legally a permanent resident. since the present law already provides favorable consideration of spouse and unmarried sons and daughters. I cannot understand why the parents should be excluded from this category. Third. we are asking for further latitude in admitting family members in the section of the Immigration Act which stipulates that working aliens only can be accepted when there is a need for the type of labor they can provide. Fourth. at present those aliens who are fulfilling the continuous resident requirement are penalized by losing from their accumulated time in the United States any time they spend working abroad for American philanthropic organizations. working for an American firm. or even serving in a military capacity for the United States In Vietnam. Our bill will correct this unfair situation for aliens who are thus employed. as well as their immediate families. At present. deportation proceedings can be instituted with any naturalized citizen. regardless of how long he has been an American. Now. there are several decisions made recently by the Supreme Court which declare certain provisions of the Immigration Act to be unconstitutional. In order to underline the gross unfairness of these provisions already noted in the Court decisions. we are recommending that these provisions be definitely repealed. They include the provision that a naturalized citizen will lose his citizenship if he resides overseas for 3 years in the country of his birth or former nationality or if he lives for 5 years in another nonAmerican area or if ones parents become expatriots. Throughout the present law on these subjects it appeared that the Immigration Act sees the naturalized citizen as a secondclass American. In my view. If we are going to grant full rights and privileges of citizenship to foreigners who make this choice and work for acceptance. we are guilty of false and misleading advertising. I do not need to emphasize that this countrys strength and success have arisen from the talents and character of aliens from all over the world becoming Americans. It is an immoral and unreal posture to maintain that the foreigner who becomes an American today is in any way less worthy than the immigrants of earlier generations or the nativeborn American. There are many other inequities in this act. but I urge. Mr. President. that the corrections suggested in Mr. KENNEDYS and my omnibus bill be soon adopted by this body in order to end a continuing shame in our immigration law. In conclusion. I offer my congratulations to the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts for the leadership he has shown in his field and also for the very real work he has done in the Judiciary Committee on all these matters.