Speech #910181727

For one day. America was the auld sod. Again this year the American Irish National Immigration Committee marched behind a banner reading "Fair Immigration Laws for Ireland. Write Your Congressman." The significance of that banner was illustrated by a story which appeared on St. Patricks Day in the Washington Post and headlined: "Irish Woman in Jail Still Chooses U.S." As the story begins: Caitriona Nessa Lane. 37. Irish. alone and out of work. heard the gate of an Alexandria Jail clang shut yesterday on what may be the end of her dreams. The United States Immigration Service has charged Miss Lane. who came here in 1966. with overstaying her three week visa. Miss Lane was quoted as saying: As far as Im concerned. theres only one countrythe United States. Miss Lanes sentiments are shared by many of her Irish brethren. Yet. under present law. opportunities for her countrymen to emigrate to America are practically nonexistent. Since 1820. more than 44 million people have immigrated to the United States. More than 10 percent of these4.711.113have come from Ireland. Yet last year. only 960 Irish immigrants were allowed to enter this country. These figures are not just numbersthey represent human beings. seeking to better themselves. looking to America as a country where they can do so. and offering the contributions of their minds and their labor. The cause for this severe limitation in immigrationa limitation which I want to emphasize has similarly affected several other. nationslies in the unanticipated inequities consequent upon enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Although the 1965 act eliminatedand properly sothe inequitable national origins quota system. it set up a system of preferences and a labor certificate requirement which have had the unexpected effect of barring the entrance of "new seed" immigrants. Allocations of numbers for persons born in areas other than the independent countries of the Western Hemisphere are governed by 8 U.S.C. 1153 (a). which prescribes categories as follows: First preferenceunmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens: not to exceed 20 percent of the overall limitation of 170.000 in any fiscal year. Second preferencespouses and unmarried sons and daughters of aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence: not to exceed 20 percent of the overall limitation plus any numbers not required for first preference.