Speech #920194525

Mr Chairman. it is with great enthusiasm and gratitude to the members of the House Judiciary Committee that I rise this day before St. Patricks Day in full support of H.R. 9615 as reported from the committee and in vigorous opposition to any weakening amendments. I might add that I made a special trip down from my district today. leaving behind a tense political situation. in order to be sure to be on the floor to oppose any attempts to weaken the bill and to vote for its final passage Our consideration today of H.R. 9615 is the fruit of a long and arduous effort of myself and other concerned Members of the House to correct the unintended and unjust inequities resulting from the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. particularly the drastic reduction in immigration from Ireland and the growing backlog of fifth preference applicantsbrothers and sisters of U.S. citizensfrom Italy. The critical reduction in Irish immigration was of special concern to me as a representative from the New York City area. because New York especially has benefited greatly from its talented and hard working Irish immigrants who have done so much to build this country and make it prosper. In light of this. it would be highly unjust and ungrateful of our Nation to allow Irish immigration to be reduced to a trickle. This does not mean we should return to the national origins concept of immigration. but it means we should remedy the present systems inequities and prevent further unfortunate declines in immigration from those countries severely disadvantaged under the terms of the 1965 act. Since this problem with the 1965 act became apparent in 1968 when its provisions became fully effective. I have sponsored and cosponsored numerous billsH.R. 16593 in 1968. H.R. 165 in 1969. and H.R. 165 and H.R. 9321 in 1971delivered speeches on the House floor and elsewhere. and written letters to the chairman and members of the House Judiciary Committee toward the goal of ending this injustice to potential Irish immigrants. H.R. 9615 is the result of this effort and it does provide a hopefully lasting solution to this problem. The amendments to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. which became law in 1965 and fully effective in 1968. were clearly designed to make our Nations immigration policies more equitable by ending the national origin quota system that discriminated against southern and eastern Europeans and Asians. The old system was replaced with a new one providing a ceiling on Eastern Hemisphere immigration and the issuance of visas on a firstcome. firstserved basis. within various preference categories based on family relationships and job skills. When this law passed. it was thought by most of us in Congress that the transition from the national origins system to the new system would not disadvantage any particular country or area. This proved not to be true. and the country which suffered most severely was Ireland. While total immigration to the United States has increased significantly since 1965. Irish immigration has been choked to a mere fraction of what it was in 1965 and before. From fiscal years 1965 to 1967. total immigration to the United States increased from 292.000 to 326.000. while immigration from Ireland fell from more than 4.000 to less than 2.000. By fiscal year 1970. the total number of Irish immigrant admissions to this country had fallen to 1.178. and the figures for the last fiscal year. 1971. were not much better1.293. Section 1 of H.R. 9615. which incorporates similar provisions of legislation I have sponsored and cosponsored on this subject. corrects this unintended inequity by establishing a floor under immigration from any country. That floor. or minimum. amounts to 75 percent of the average yearly number of immigrant visas issued from a given nation during the 10fiscalyear period195665before enactment of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. If in any fiscal year after June 30. 1970. visas issued to natives of any country fall below this minimum. then additional special visas will be issued in the following fiscal year to make up the difference between that minimum and the number of visas issued the previous fiscal years under the provisions of the 1965 act. The number of additional special visas is not to exceed 7.500 for any one country. Under this formula the total number of visas available to Ireland annually will be at least 5.389. as compared with 1.293 for fiscal year 1971. I must add that section 2 of H.R. 9615 sets an effective period for its provisions of 4 fiscal years. I sincerely hope that this will allow sufficient time for correction of all the inequities of the 1965 act and complete the transition smoothly from the old national origins immigration systems to the new. more equitable system. Correction of the Irish immigration injustice alone merits passage of H.R. 9615. but this worthy legislation also attempts to solve another unforeseen difficulty with the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Actthe growing backlog of fifthpreference applicantsbrothers and sisters of U.S. citizensfrom certain countries. notably Italy. The reuniting of families in the United States is one of the principal aims of our Nations immigration policy. Because of the previous quota system and the ceiling on the immigration of brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens. countries like Italy who have a great many eligible immigrant applicants in this category have experienced sizeable backlogs in such applications. By July of 1964. the backlog of Italians in this brothers and sisters category reached the astounding figure of 114.717. Under sections 3 and 4 of H.R. 9615. special visas in an amount equal to 25 percent of the total of the brothers and sisters preference registration of any foreign state as of July 1. 1964. will be made available to aliens from the state who are the beneficiaries of the fifthpreference petitions filed prior to July 1. 1971. The total number of visas to be made available during the 4year period provided in H.R. 9615. is 39.674. with 28.680 visas available to Italian applicants. Thus. 7.170 visas would be available to Italy for each of the 4 fiscal years. In addition. H.R. 9615. would relieve the pressure of the backlog of immigrant visa applications of natives from the dependency areas such as Antigua. British Honduras. and the British Virgin Islands. because those areas will be able to benefit from the additional visas to which Great Britain and other mother countries would be entitled under section 1 of this bill. H.R. 9615 has the support of the American Irish National Immigration Committee and the American Committee on Italian Migration. and represents the best legislative solution achievable under present circumstances to the unanticipated effects of the 1965 act. I would like at this time to commend the very able Chairman of the House Judiciarys Immigration subcommittee and subcommittee member for their dedication and leadership in developing this legislation and in bringing it successfully out of the Committee for House floor consideration. and I strongly urge all the Members of the House to vote for passage of H.R. 9615 without amendments.