Speech #990169377

I want to commend. particularly. the work of Congressman BRIAN DONNELLY of my own State of Massachusetts. who introduced similar legislation last year to deal with this issue. I believe Congressman DONNELLY has paved the way for a serious consideration of this matter and. hopefully. eventual enactment of this or similar legislation. In an effort to restore parity to the immigration system our legislation looks at the levels of immigration before the current preference system was established. In order to correct the inequities of the system we have devised a new formula for granting visas as follows: First. take the gross number of visas that were issued to natives from each country for the 10year period beginning July 1. 1956. Second. from this 10year period. the 2 years with the highest levels are dropped. This is done to avoid aberations such as the one that occurred as a result of the unrest in Hungary in Third. the sum of the remaining 8 years is then divided by 8 to come up with a yearly average for that designated period. Fourth. in an attempt to set as realistic levels as possible. our legislation would then multiply this yearly average by 0.75. This is the number which becomes the new base for all countries under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Fifth. the difference between this new base number and the number of visas that were issued in fiscal year 1984 for a foreign state of chargeability under the preference system is then taken. If the base number is greater than the fiscal year 1984 number. that nation will be entitled to additional visas equal to the difference. For example. if Italys base number is 5.000 under the new formula and 1.000 visas were issued in fiscal year 1984 under the current prefrence system Italy would be entitled to up to 4.000 additional visas. The next step. under the proposed legislation. entails the distribution of these additional visas. This is handled as follows: First. the number of additional visas would be distributed to each of the preference categories as they are now distributed under current law. -Second. if additional visas remain after clearing out the various preference categories. under the formula in current law. the remaining visas will be used to clean out preference one to as great an extent as possible. and so on down the line through all six preference categories. Third. if all six preference categories are cleaned out. any remaining visas would be issued on a nonpreference. firstserved basis. Two restrictions would apply to nonpreference visas. First. there would not be any more than 5.000 nonpreference visas which could be issued to any country in a single year. Second. the nonpreference visas would have to be used in the year they are issued. There will not be any carryover of nonpreference visas. While most countries in Western Europe. Canada. Mexico. and Australia would be the primary beneficiaries of this new formula. I want to emphasize that all other countries in the world would not be penalized. Immigration levels would remain the same as it is under current law. Mr. President. for some time now the Irish and other Western Europeans. most notably the West Germans and Italians. have been concerned that since the implementation of the worldwide preference system in 1966. there has been a precipitous decline in the number of individuals allowed to enter the United States when compared to the level preceding the preference system. While this bill increases the allowable immigration from a number of countries. it should be pointed out that Irish emigration to the United States. which averaged 7.000 individuals in each of the 10 years prior to the Implementation of the preference system. has averaged less than 1.000 in the past few years. Last year. under this system. only 514 Irish received preference visas. I raise the issue of Irish immigration not only because of the traditional ties we have had with Ireland. but also because of the significant and vital contributions those of Irish descent have made to building our Nation. The Irish have brought to the United States a cultural tradition which has enriched significantly our entire society. And because of the inestimable contributions IrishAmericans have made to the United States.