Speaker. today my colleague from California and I introduced legislation that would enable applicants for citizenship to establish their ability to read and write. to understand the Constitution and the Government. in their native language or in the language in which they are most literate. The statutory requirement from English literacy was enacted in September 1950..as part of the InternalSecurity Act. Prior to that time. the only statutory: language requirement for naturalization was the ability to speak English and to sign ones name. a proviso of the Naturalization Act of 1906. That requirement was carried over in subsequent acts until Both the Naturalization Act of 1906 and the Internal Security Act of 1950 became law when antiforeign feelings were in ascendance in America. They were not the fruit of patriotism or any other generous impulse. They were the fruit of suspicion. fear. greed. and racism. They were. the result of impulses that are the antithesis of the American ideal. the American dream of a free and open society. The 1950 act exempted from the Englishliterary requirement a group of older aliens who were otherwise qualified for naturalization. Those who had been legally residing in the United States for 20 years and were over 50 years of age were exempted. The date fixed for calculating residence and qualifying age was September 23. 1950. the date of enactment. That date was extended to December 24. 1952. in the Immigration and Nationality Act. A bill to eliminate the cutoff date and to. extend the exception on a continuing basis passed this House in May 1969. some 14 years after the second cutoff date was established. Though the bill raised no new question of policy. and though there is no apparent reason why it should not be promptly enacted. the bill has been gathering dust in the other House of Congress for more than a year.
Keywords matched
naturalization Immigration Naturalization