Speech #990264098

Mr. Speaker. once again Congress is preparing to adjourn without enacting any significant reform of our Immigration Code. The last major change in the immigration law took place 21 years ago. and the evidence is overwhelming that it is not working properly. There are between 3 and 12 million illegal aliens in the United States. it is impossible to estimate the exact number. Our Border Patrol has arrested 1.7 million trying to cross our borders illegally this year. and at least that many have made it across without getting caught. While illegal aliens stream across our borders. the door to legal immigration is slammed shut on those nations that enjoy long historic and family ties with our country. The immigration reform of 1965 was intended to correct the apparent discrimination against residents of some countries. such as those of southern and eastern Europe. It eliminated countrybycountry quotas in favor of a single. worldwide quota of 270.000. The legislation was crafted to reunite separated family members and to allow those with special professional or labor skills to obtain a preference in applying for a visa. Postwar prosperity in Europe slowed the demand for immigrant visas from that continent. and many expected the new worldwide quota would accommodate virtually anyone who wanted to come to the United States. No one foresaw the massive wave of immigration from Asia. Attorney General Robert Kennedy told Chairman RODINOS immigration subcommittee in 1964 that. under the reform bill. immigration "for the AsiaPacific triangle .. . would be approximately 5.000." The experience of the last 20 years has been vastly different from what the Attorney General predicted. Immigration from the AsiaPacific triangle last year was not 5.000. but 121.000. It accounted for 46 percent of the worldwide quota. not the 2 percent that Robert Kennedy foresaw. Whats more. the huge numbers of immigrants qualifying for preference visas now outstrip the worldwide quota. so there is now a lengthy waiting list even for those who are supposed to be at the front of the line. Wouldbe immigrants who do not qualify for a preference visa have not been admitted since 1978. The goal of the 1965 reform was noble to end discrimination against immigrants because of their nationality. Unfortunately. the events of the last 20 years have conspired to increase the problem of discrimination. not to eliminate it. Asians had long been discriminated against. Now. their large numbers are squeezing European immigrants out of the mix. The southern and eastern Europeans who expected to benefit from the 1965 law are now effectively excluded from the immigrant pool on an equal basis with residents of northern and western Europe. The cumulative effect of the policy of the last 20 years has been to discriminate against many of the peoples that built our Nation. In the 1950s. more than half of our Nations new arrivals came from Europe. In the 1970s. that declined to less than 18 percent. Last year. fewer than 8.3 percent of the immigrant visas granted under the worldwide quota went to immigrants from Europe. Italy. for example. accounted for more than 7 percent of the immigrant stock in the 1950s. but less than onehalf of 1 percent last year. Ireland provided 2 percent of the immigrants in the 1950s. nearly 5.000 per year. Last year. only 515 Irish obtained visas under the preference system. less than twotenths of 1 percent. France accounted for 2 percent of the immigrants who arrived in the 1950s. but only threetenths of 1 percent last year. For Germany. Greece. Austria. Norway. the Netherlands. and more than a dozen other countries. the story is the samethe route to legal immigration is closed to almost all traffic. The result is hardly surprising. Laws that make legal entry impossible make illegal immigration inevitable. There are now tens of thousands. and perhaps hundreds of thousands. of illegal European immigrants in the United States. If this House had considered immigration reform this year. I was prepared to offer an amendment that would have restored some balance to our immigration law. My amendment would have authorized a relatively small number of new visas reserved specifically for immigrants from countries that have historically contributed to our immigrant stock but have suffered a sharp drop in admissions in recent years. This Congress has failed to face up to its responsibility to enact fair and enforceable immigration legislation. When the new Congress convenes in January. it must take up that challenge. We can never hope to keep illegal immigrants from coming into our country through the back door if we keep the front door locked tight.