Speech #900235392

I should like to thank the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts for his very valuable contribution to this special order. The gentleman from Massachusetts is one of the cosponsors of the bill. H.R. 16593. which we have introduced in an effort to meet the problem. by placing a floor under the immigration from every nation based on 75 percent of its average annual immigration for a 10year base period. This will help countries which have suffered because of the unintended effects of the 1965 act and not injure any country which benefits from that act. The gentleman has been deeply concerned with this. and he is one of those who participated in the hearing that I called on April 1 which was attended by 27 Members of the House and 12 legislative aids to listen to the representatives of the AmericanIrish Immigration Committee. The chairman. John Collins. and the Reverend Donald M. OCallaghan. in eloquent testimony brought to attention of the Members gathered there the inequities resulting from the 1965 act. Twentyfour representatives from six State chapters of the AmericanIrish Immigration CommitteeIllinois. Massachusetts. New Jersey. New York. Pennsylvania. and Rhode Islandattended our hearing. As a matter of fact. the committee had apprised many Members of the Congress of the impending eclipse of Irish immigration. Previously some 16 Members of the House introduced legislation to restore the more liberal pre1965 labor certification requirements which would place the burden of exclusion upon the Secretary of Labor rather than requiring the prospective immigrant to prove that he will not take a job which an American worker can perform. I have introduced a bill. H.R. 1775. to accomplish this. However. at the hearing which we held on April 1. we learned from the Director of the Visa Office of the Department of State. George Owen. and the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Raymond F. Farrell. that reversing the labor certification requirement would only be useful as far as Ireland is concerned until the end of this fiscal year. July 1. when the old quota expires. After July 1. 1968. when every country will compete on a firstcome. firstserved basis for a very limited number of worldwide places. that is 17.000 in the sixthpreference category. no matter how liberal our requirements for labor certification may be. the probability is that immigrants from Ireland would only be allotted a few hundred places. Mr. Speaker. this realization led us to consider an entirely different approach to the question of immigration. The result was the bill which I mentioned previously. H.R. 16593. which has been cosponsored by 23 Members of the House. It simply provides that. if the annual level of immigration from a given nation has dropped below threefourths of its 10year pre1965 average. then an additional number of places would be allotted to that nation to bring the total immigration in any one year to threefourths of its former average. However. in no case would immigration from any country so affected exceed 10.000. In the case of Ireland where Immigration for the past 10 years. the 10 years prior to 1965. averaged 7.185 yearly. threequarters of this total would be 5.390. or just about the figure which the State Department mistakenly predicted would be the level after the 1965 act was in effect. Although our bill would apply equally to all nations. few. in fact. would be affected. since most of them have been helped. not hindered. by the 1965 act. In fact. we have concluded that not more than 20.000 to 30.000 additional places worldwide would be added to the total number of immigrants coming into the United States. Let me state emphatically that our proposal is not a return to a national origin quota system. It simply provides a floor to insure that immigration levels from the very nations whose sons have contributed so much to the United States will not decline catastrophically as a result of the 1965 act. I know that the distinguished chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. Congressman CELLER. is concerned about the unintended inequities in the 1965 act. and he has proposed amendments to distribute generally the available places on a more equitable basis. That is a worthy objective. and I certainly hope that hearings will be scheduled promptly. so that this entire matter can be given the careful analysis which it deserves. No matter how we change labor certification requirements and no matter how we juggle preference categories. there will be unintended results favoring the relative positions of certain nationalities and hurting others. This will invariably happen unless we place a floor under the immigration level of all nations. as our bill. H.R. 16593. would do. Mr. Speaker. there is a very real deadline confronting us. On July 1. as has been pointed out. just 2 months from tomorrow. the 1965 act will be fully in effect. and unless there is a law on the books by that date. thousands of prospective immigrants from the countries which formerly provided the basis for our immigrant stock will be unjustly and unintendedly excluded. I am very pleased that this bill. H.R. 16593. has received the wide support which its distinguished roster of cosponsors indicates.