Speech #920194511

It is entirely fitting that today. the eve of St. Patricks Day we are considering a bill which will be of primary benefit to two nationalities which have contributed so much to our countrythe Irish and the Italians. When the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed. it repealed the national origins quota concept as a system for selecting immigrants and replaced it with a system of preferential admissions based on the advantages to this country of the skills of the immigrants and the close family ties which existed between those desiring to come to the United States and those already here as citizens and permanent residents. It was the intention of the act that no group would be disadvantaged by this law and that all countries would be able to compete on an equal basis for immigrant visas. However. as a result of amendments added to the bill before It was enacted. various inequities resulted. affected most severely those from Northern Europe and the Italians. H.R. 9615 is remedial legislation. designed to correct these inequities the 1965 law unwitingly created. The first provision of the law would allocate additional visas to immigrants from previously undersubscribed countries. particularly Ireland. It would place a floor under the number of immigrant visas available annually to any given country. guaranteeing every country 75 percent of the average number of visas it used annually between 1956 and 65. but not to exceed 7.500. The need for this provision is apparent when we examine the immigraton statistics from a country such as Ireland which received 6.328 visas in 1964 and 1.077 in fiscal 1971. Congress did not have the intention of restricting immigration from Northern Europe when it passed the 1965 act and it is the hope of those of us supporting this legislation that this provision will lead to an unskewing of the preference system insofar as the countries involved are concerned. countries which have contributed so many of our citizens in the past. The second provision has as its purpose the reduction of a substantial backlog of brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens who are presently awaiting fifth preference visas. This legislation would have primary benefit for Italy and the dependencies. As written it would provide over a period of 4 years approximately 28.000 additional immigrant visas for the fifth preference backlog. As with the first provision affecting Northern Europeans. the need for this provision as well is most apparent. At the moment a desperate situation exists with those registered under fifth preference from Italy. for visas are being issued only to those qualified applicants whose petitions were filed prior to June 1970. This lengthy waiting period works extreme hardships on families who have already been separated for long periods of time. One of the chief purposes of our immigration laws written in 1965 was the reuniting of families and I have always believed that this should in fact be a main objective. An added advantage of this provision is that applicants for sixth preferenceskilled and unskilled labor in short supplyand nonpreference visas. currently unavailable in Italy. would also benefit since the net effect of the provision would be to eliminate the bottleneck at fifth preference thus freeing visas for use by sixth preference and nonpreference applicants. Finally. I would like to say a few words about the amendment which will be proposed by Mr.