Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to support this bill to bring needed improvements to our immigration law. As a former member of the Immigration. Citizenship and International Law Subcommittee. I had ample opportunity to study our immigration problems when we had hearings around the country on the illegal alien issue. and extended hearings in Washington on immigration developments under the Immigration Act of 1965. I wish to congratulate the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Mr. EILBERG. the subcommittee chairman. for bringing to the floor this bill to provide the Western Hemisphere with a preference system for the issuance of visas. as well as the illegal alien bill. H.R. 982. which has already passed the House. These two bills deal with the two most pressing problems in the field of immigration. This bill corrects an omission in the 1965 act. In applying the same preference system and per country numerical ceiling to both hemispheres. H.R. 981 brings to our immigration law uniformity of treatment for all aliens seeking admission regardless of the place of his birth. I support this change. Our immigration law should give favored treatment to no country and to no nationalitythere must be equal. uniform treatment for all aliens with no discrimination. The preference system and 20.000 per country maximum ceiling established for the Western Hemisphere are the same system and numerical ceiling applied since 1965 to all Eastern Hemisphere aliens. It has proved successful. and with one minor exception. brought applications of qualified aliens to a current basis so there is no significant backlog.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration visas illegal alien