Speech #920194495

Mr. Chairman. we have before us today a very important legislative proposal in that it offers an opportunity for this Nation to once again illustrate its humane character. The bill would correct the unforeseen inequities in the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. The 1965 act. which became fully effective in 1968. repealed the national origins quota system and substituted a ceiling on Eastern Hemisphere immigration on a firstcome. firstserved basis. within various preference categories. Unfortunately. it has resulted in the drastic decline of immigration from Ireland and increased the backlog of fifthpreference applicants. the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens. from Italy. This situation developed as a result of amendments which were added to the 1965 bill before its enactment. H.R. 9615 is designed to correct the inequities resulting from the act of October 3. 1965. In fact. the dual thrust of the bill carries out the intent and purpose of the 1965 amendments to allow each country an opportunity to compete fairly and equitably for visas by creating a temporary floor on immigration based upon a 10year average and by the partial. but reasonable. elimination of the backlog in the fifth preference. It was agreed in 1965. and it is no less important today. that the inequities of. and the deficiencies in. our immigration law. must be eliminated before the United States can fully embark on a fair. reasonable. and an equitable immigration policy. This bill does not in any way reinstate the national origins concept for selecting immigrants. Mr. Chairman. as I said initially. this is an opportunity for us to illustrate our humane character. In 1965 many of us. and I for one. sincerely believed we were correcting the inequities of our previous immigration laws. We did. in part. correct those inequities. Experience under that act has shown. however. that all the thenexisting problems have not been solved. As a consequence of the 3year phaseout period of the old system. the backlogs in some oversubscribed preferences were not eliminated as intended by the proponents of the legislation and immigration from the former highquota countries was adversely affected. This bill. as reported from the committee. should help correct that situation. I know that efforts will be made to amend the bill.