Speech #920194431

The admission of such a paucity of people of those races. sturdy and hard working. is merely a ripple as it were upon the tremendous population of this country. Mr. Chairman. 61/2 years ago we enacted legislation abolishing the pernicious national origins quota system which formed the basis of our immigration policy for more than 40 years. Under this system you may recall the number of immigrants admitted annually from each country was calculated as a percentage of the number of U.S. citizens of the same national origin in this country as recorded by the 1920 census. This system was highly discriminatory. based largely on the erroneous assumption that immigrants from countries most highly representative of our population were somehow more easily assimilated into our culture. It is some comfort in these troubled times to realize that there are some problems that we have outgrown. Largely as a result of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act amendments. our immigration policy is no longer based on the assumption that some people are more fit than others to come to the United States. because of their race or national origin. H.R. 9615. the bill before us today. is aimed at the alleviation of hardships unfairly imposed on a few countries. namely. Ireland. Italy. Great Britain. Germany. and Poland by our immigration laws. The hardship. however. is not the result of a calculated policy. On the contrary. it is the completely inadvertent result of the sweeping changes brought about by the 1965 legislation. The legislation under consideration is of a temporary nature. as I have indicated. aimed at correcting the unfortunate inequities that arose in the process of transition from the national origins quota system to the system now used to regulate amual immigration from Eastem Hemisphere countries. The 1965 amendments replaced the quota system with an annual overall ceiling on Eastern Hemisphere immigration of 170.000 immigrant visas. of which no more than 20.000 could be used by any one country. Within these two numerical restrictions. the visas are distributed on a firstcome. firstserved basis according to a revised eightcategory preference system aimed first at reuniting families. and second at providing admission for the professional and highly talented and for those seeking employment in occupations undersupplied by American labor. The legislation provided for a 3year transition period. all countries were still allotted their original quotas. but any unused numbers were pooled for use by other countries. For instance. under the quota system Great Britain had an annual allotment of 65.361 immigrant visas. of which only 30.560 were used in 1964. Since these numbers were nontransferable. they were actually lost. and went down the drain. during the pooling period unused quota numbers became transferable to other countries according to the new preference system. It was hoped that by July 1. 1968. when the provisions of the 1965 act went into full effect. that the backlogs which had accumulated under the quota system would have been absorbed and that all countries would compete on an equal footing under the new system. This. in fact. was not the case. some old backlogs had not been absorbed. and some new ones- had developed during the transition period. particularly in the workrelated preferences. Italy. for instance. had- a waiting list of over 100.000 brother and sister applicants when the 1965 law was passed. The pooling did little to ease this since Italy was restricted to 20.000 visas annually and. after the long years on the meager quota of 5.666 visas per year. most of these were used by applicants for the four preference categories preceding fifthpreference brothers and sisters. Further. and most unexpectedly. several countries particularly well favored under the quota system. including Germany. Great Britain and Ireland. have had their immigration severely reduced by the new provisions. Ireland. for instance. used 6.328 immigrant visas in fiscal 1964 and 1.077 in fiscal 1971. Germany used 28.691 immigrant visas in 1964 and 6.028 in fiscal 1971. These dramatic reductions have not been voluntary. They have resulted in part from the disadvantageous position of applicants from high quota countries due to the backlogs in some of the preference categories at the close of the transition period. Moreover. natives of countries highly favored by the national origins quota system almost by definition are more apt to have ancestors buried here than close relatives who can petition for their entry. This has proved particularly true of the Irish. who came to this country in large numbers in the 19th century. H.R. 9615 is aimed at correcting the two specific situations to which I have referredthe heavy backlog in the fifth CXVIII--546--Part 7 preference brother and sister category. and the disadvantageous position of natives from certain countries which have been plunged from riches to rags as far as immigrant visas are concerned. Being human. we did less than a perfect job in H.R. 9615 will correct an inequitable situation which has been pending too long. In 1965. everybody was assured that upon passage of the new immigration act all nationalities would be treated on an equal footing. History has taught us otherwise. The backlog of Italian immigrants was not cleared up by July 1. 1968 as we were led to believe it would. Irish immigrants were unable to qualify for visas under the new law and immigrants from that country have dwindled to a mere trickle. This is indeed unfortunate. I support H.R. 9615 as a definite forward step in removing the last stumbling blocks to the complete integration of a discriminationless basis for immigration to the United States. To let this situation go uncorrected is a terrible slight to our many fine citizens of Italian and Irish heritage who rightfully want for their countrymen only what was promisednamely. the right to compete for immigrant visas on an equal basis with all other nationalities. It is very significant that tomorrow is St. Patricks Dayan auspicious time to grant this boon to our Irish friends.