Speech #930120733

Chairman. I strongly recommend passage of H.R. 981. This bill. along with H.R. 982. which has already received favorable action by this House. will provide solutions to the two pressing problems facing this country in the field of immigration. H.R. 982 will sharply reduce the present flood of illegal aliens across our borders. This bill. H.R. 981. will establish a preference system for the admission of eligible aliens from the Western Hemispherea badly needed change to correct an omission in the 1965 Immigration Act. I wish to take this opportunity. Mr. Chairman. to pay tribute to Chairman RODINO of the Judiciary Committee. and the chairman. JosHuA EILBERG. of the Subcommittee on Immigration. Citizenship. and International Law. Under their able leadership the Judiciary Committee has moved swiftly and efficiently. first. to meet the immediate most pressing needs for amendment to the general immigration law. second. to clean up the heavy backlog in private immigration bills and bring the private bill docket to current status for the first time in modern times. and third. to begin much needed oversight review and study on a continuing basis of the application of the laws relating to the issuance of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas and the admission of aliens to the United States. The subcommittee has labored diligently on these matters. It has been a cooperative joint undertaking by members from both sides of the aisle. It has been a great personal pleasure for me to work closely with Chairman ELBERG in our endeavor. I am happy to recognize their fine leadership publically. I am proud of what we have achieved and are accomplishing in the field of immigration. This bill. H.R. 981. is a good billn some respects it can be said to be a minimal bill. It does not increase the numerical ceilings the Congress has set for the admission of aliens into the United States. It does meet an objective recommended by the Department of State and the Department of Justicethe establishment of a preference system for Western Hemisphere immigration. Thus it will bring order and uniformity to our immigration law so that immigration from the Western Hemisphere will be on the same orderly basis as the rest of the world. When the Congress enacted the 1965 immigration amendments it did away with the old most favored nation policy and adopted a selective system for the admission of aliens to reunite families and to provide skills needed in the United States. This system for the selection of immigrants through the use of preferences for certain categories of aliens Is based upon the concept that. so long as demand for immigration to this country exceeds the amount of immigration to be permitted. there should also be a system of selection and preferential treatment for certain classes of immigrantsskilled workers. close relatives. refugees. et cetera. Moreover. no nation receives favored treatmentthe new system is administered upon a firstcome. firstserved basis without reference to country of origin. However. separate numerical ceilings were set for the Eastern and Western Hemispheres and. as a result of amendments in the other body. no preference system was provided for natives of the Western Hemisphere. This has created an anomalous situation seriously disadvantaging persons born in the Western Hemisphere. H.R. 981. in applying an identical system of priorities for both hemispheres. does away with the last vestige of discrimination and truly establishes a uniformno favoritismsystem of immigration. Earlier I stated the bill could be called a minimal bill. It better can be described as a transitional bill. It is designed to provide experience for the Western Hemisphere under a system of priorities identical to that applicable to the Eastern Hemisphere so that it can be ascertained whether or not it is logical and practical to have one worldwide numerical ceiling on immigration. Experience under the two hemisphere ceilings with identical preference systems will provide guidelines for a more thorough revision of the existing preference system for the entire world. Although the bill maintains separate numerical ceilings for the two hemispheres. as recommended by the Department of State. it does provide the same preference system. the same entrance requirementsidentical conditions for natives of every country in the world. and identical treatment for every country in the world.