Speech #920194438

They have fought in wars. beginning with the Revolution. George Washingtons army was bilingual. with Irish spoken as commonly as English. Lord Mountjoy told the British Parliament. "You have lost America by the Irish." a sentiment echoed in the Irish House of Commons: "America was lost to England by the Irish emigrants." The great famine in Ireland in 184647 sent the Irish here in waves to fight in our Civil War and build our roads and railways. The sons of Ireland have built and served our cities until the present day. And. not least. from Andrew Jackson. the son of an Irish exile. down to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. they have led our Nation as Presidents. Under the 1965 amendments. immigration from all countries not in the Western Hemisphere is restricted to 170.000 a year. with a 20.000 per country limit. Within these numerical restrictions. intending immigrants compete on a firstcome. firstserved basis for entry. Entry is further regulated by an eightcategory preference system. which places first priority on family relationships and second priority on needed skills and talents. However. the Irish immigrant has been typically young. unmarried. and unskilled. He has come to America alone to seek his fortune. The extent to which the Irish are ineligible for entry under todays immigration laws is graphically illustrated by the fact that 1.077 received immigrant visas in fiscal year 1971. as opposed to the average annual figure of 7.185 immigrant visas issued to Ireland during the 10year period fiscal years 195665. A similar pattern is repeated for Germany and for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unquestionably. the goals of reuniting families and protecting American labor are highly preferable to the illusory one of freezing the ethnic balance in the United States at its 1920 status. However. regardless of the merit of its underlying rationale. there is something wrong with a system which so drastically and arbitrarily reduces immigration from the countries which built America. The bill before us would put a guaranteed floor under the number of immigrant visas available to each country for a 4year period. This figure would be based on the annual average number of visas used by a given country during the 10year period 195665. The difference between the number received by a country under the permanent provisions of the immigration law and the guaranteed annual floor would be made up by special visas issued outside of the overall ceiling of 170.000. Using 1971 as a base year. the State Department estimated that a maximum of 32.877 special visas would be made available during the first fiscal year this legislation was in effect. The bill exempts those receiving these visas from the labor certification requirement. and provides for their distribution as follows: 40 percent to applicants in the first through fifth preference classes. 30 percent plus fall down to sixth preferenceskilled and unskilled labor. and 30 percent to nonpreference applicants. The second major provision of the bill would facilitate entry of brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens who have been waiting for fifth preference visas. and would be of primary benefit to Italy. The waiting list for this category. formerly fourth preference. at the time enactment of the 1965 amendments was over 100.000 for Italy. largely the result of her woefully inadequate annual quota of 5.666. The backlog for this preference for Italy and for several other countries was not absorbed during the transition period of 2 1/2 years before the provisions of the 1965 act went into full effect on July 1. 1968. and there is no prospect of its elimination in the future without remedial legislation. The bill before us would provide for a specified number of special immigrant visas for fifth preference applicants on whose behalf petitions were filed prior to July 1. 1971. and would allow unused ones to drop down to sixth preference applicants. This. too. is a temporary provision. limited. in effect. to 4 years. I am confident that this temporary legislation will eliminate the fifth preference backlogs. There is some question. however. about its longterm effect on the changed pattern of immigration from Ireland and other formerly favored countries such as Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Germany. This problem will certainly be kept in mind during the review of omnibus immigration reform legislation about to get underway by the immigration subcommittee. In the meantime. there is no question that temporary remedial action must be taken.