Speech #900235399

I commend the gentleman from New York for his initiative in entering this bill. I am a cosponsor of the bill. and I agree heartily with the gentlemans efforts. I have never been persuaded that the immigration policy of the United States since World War I. when we cut back from perhaps as many as a million immigrants a year to not much more than 100.000. that it was the right thing to do. and perhaps the change was too abrupt. Certainly the strength of our country lies in the diversity of the people who come here from many civilizations. Having such a diversity assures that our country will consist of openminded people rather than those who are grounded in a narrow parochialism of centuries of living together without the introduction of new blood.