Speech #900305865

Speaker. throughout the world. the peoples of the United States are viewed as a "melting pot" of diverse national origins. Perhaps the greatest strength of this Nation is derived from the ability of these multiorigin peoples to live together and to pull together a majority of the time. but especially when the Nations interest calls for unified action. In order to perpetuate the diverse character of our population. the United States has long pursued immigration policies to continue the stream of immigrants to our shores. However. prior to the enactment of the 1965 amendments to the Immigrationand Nationality ActPublic Law 89236the national origins quota system unduly discriminated against persons from certain countries seeking to immigrate to the United States. Therefore. the 1965 amendments were adopted in an attempt to remedy this problem by providing for the issuance of visas on a worldwide firstcome. firstserved basis. within the various visa preference categories. Unfortunately. due to unforeseen circumstances. the 1965 amendments. while curing some inequities in our immigration laws. created certain other areas of discrimination. which was not the intent of Congress. For example. prior to the 1965 amendments. most Western European nations had sufficient annual quotas to meet the needs of their nationals wishing to immigrate to the United States. While at the same time. the Eastern European nations. whose annual quotas were smaller and where living conditions were less desirable. accumulated long waiting lists. Under the 1965 amendments all of those presently on waiting lists must be granted visas before a visa can be issued to current Western European applicants in the same preference category. The result of this change. which became effective July 1. 1968. prevents the entry into the United States of third. fifth. and sixth preference and nonpreference immigrants from Ireland. England. Germany and the Scandanavian countries for the next 2 or 3 years. While some persons may take the position that these countries previously enjoyed a mostfavorednation status. and that this justifies the complete preference which the Eastern European nations will enjoy for the next 2 or 3 years. I do not subscribe to this view. We cannot afford to discourage immigration to the United States from these nations. nor can we say that the United States does not require the varied skills that so many of these immigrants can contribute to this Nation. Therefore. I believe that we must temporarily make visa numbers available to the people of Western Europe during this transitional period and until the worldwide immigration picture equalizes itself. To accomplish this. I cosponsored H.R. 16593 with the gentleman from New York and others to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make additional immigrant visas available for immigrants from certain foreign countries. and for other purposes. This legislation. which must be passed. would set a minimum number of visas each year to those countries of Western Europe whose citizens are adversely affected by the 1965 amendments. This number would be fixed at 75 percent of the Nations average annual immigration for the 10year period of 1956 to 1965. In no case would this floor exceed 10.000 for any one nation. Operationally. this procedure would affect only those nations standing to lose by the 1965 amendments. Enactment would. at the most. according to the Department of State. result in the admission of an additional 41.500 immigrants over the 170.000 presently provided for by statute. Mr. Speaker. I urge the early consideration and enactment of H.R. 16593 so that the flow of immigrants from Western Europe is not completely cut off. I hasten to point out that this measure need only remain in effect for the transitional period of 2 or 3 years. An additional problem that has resulted from the 1965 amendments is that it is impossible for religious organizations to secure the prompt admission into the United States from Western Europe of teachers. nuns.