Speech #930091836

This casts. an unnecessary and costly burden on the person born in the West.ern Hemisphere. solely because of his place of birth. These discriminations based on place of birth should be eliminated. All personswhether born in the Eastern or Western Hemisphereshould be treated alike under our Immigration and Nationality Law. My bill does that. My bill would add the 170.000 visas now available to persons born in the Eastern Hemisphere and the 120.000 visas now available to persons born in the Western Hemisphere so as to make the numerical limitation 290.000available to all persons. wherever born. MY bill would then make all persons subject to the preference system I first outlined. so that relativesfirst. second. fourth. and fifth preference visaswould be reunited. refugees -from the Western Hemisphere countries would become eligible for seventh preference visas. professionals and other workers would become eligible for third or sixth preference visas. and. should there be any unused visas in the preference categories. nonpreference or eighth preference visas would be available. The 20.000 limitation per country would also become applicable to all countries in the Western Hemisphere as well as Eastern Hemisphere. And. persons born in the Western Hemisphere would be eligible to adjust their status in the United States on the same basis as do persons born in the Eastern Hemisphere. So as to provide for an equitable adjustment period. priority dates held by persons born in the Western Hemisphere on July 1. 1973 would* be retained and visas allotted for the most preferential class to which the immigrant is eligible. This bill eliminates discrimination in our Immigration and Nationality Act based on accident of birth in the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. This discrimination. too. should be eliminated from our statute books. Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that the text of my bill amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to remove the distinction between Eastern and Western Hemisphere immigrants. to establish an immigrant ceiling. and for other purposes be printed in the RECORD at this point.