Speaker. I am introducing today legislation to raise the antiquated and discriminatory colonial quota. This little known provision of our immigration laws artificially limits immigration from nonwhite colonial areas. When first imposed in 1952. this quota affected residents of Caribbean islands seeking to enter this country. The colonial quota now. as a practical matter. applies only to individuals born in Hong Kong who seek to emmigrate to this land. For colonies such as Hong Kong. current law limits immigration to only 600 visas a year. compared with the 20.000 visa standard for independent nations. My legislation would raise the colonial quota to 5.000 visas a year There is a particular urgency to this legislation now that Great Britain has agreed to relinquish control of Hong Kong to the Peoples Republic in 1997. because at that point. Hong Kong will presumably lose its limited status as a colony. and thereafter be included within the overall quota for China. There are. however. many thousands of people who wish to leave Hong Kong before 1997. and this legislation would facilitate the entry of many of these individuals to the United States. Yet without this legislation. only a handful of visas could be issued to Hong Kong residents before the return to Communist government. In both the 97th and the 98th Congresses. proposals to raise the colonial quota to 3.000 visas a year were adopted without opposition. Now. with the return of Hong Kong to China just 11 years away. we must act with dispatch to allow a reasonable number of people now in Hong Kong to leave before 1997. The vast bulk of these visas would. of course. be issued to relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. All would be issued in accordance with the existing system of preferences. The current colonial quota is artificially low and discriminatory on its own. but the situation in Hong Kong makes the problem all the more urgent. I urge my colleagues to join with me in supporting the modest but much needed immigration reform. Thank you very much.*
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