Speech #990279026

Mr. Speaker. I support the conference report on the immigration reform bill with great reluctance. It is better than no change from current law. but not much. The Housepassed immigration reform legislation contained a provision which I sponsored to make available approximately 65.000 nonpreference visas for western Europe for each of the next 5 years. The conference report provides for only 5.000 nonpreference visas for all of western Europe for each of the next 2 years. It is extremely disappointing that today. as the House considers historic immigration reform. we are unable to also resolve the problem of western European immigration. The problem western European immigrants face today is rooted in the most recent immigration reform effort. undertaken in 1965. That legislation was intended to correct the apparent discrimination against residents of countries in southern and eastern Europe. It eliminated countrybycountry quotas in favor of a single. worldwide quota of 270.000. Postwar European prosperity slowed the demand for immigrant visas from that continent. and the authors of the legislation expected the new worldwide quota to accommodate virtually anyone who wanted to come to the United States. Events of the last 20 years. however. have exacerbated the problem of discrimination. not eliminated it. No one predicted. in 1965. the massive wave of immigration from Asia. Attorney General Robert Kennedy told Chairman RODINOS subcommittee in 1964 that immigration for the AsianPacific triangle would be approximately 5.000 in the first few years. and would decline after that. The experience of the last 20 years has been very different. Immigration from Asia and the Pacific last year was not 5.000. but rather 121.000. It accounted for 46 percent of the worldwide quota. not 2 percent as Attorney General Kennedy predicted. In addition. the huge number of immigrants who qualify for preference visas outstrips the worldwide quota. so there is now a lengthy list even for those who are supposed to be at the head of the waiting line. Wouldbe immigrants who do not qualify for a preference visa have not been admitted since 1978. As a result of this policy. in effect since 1965. Europeans are being squeezed out of the immigration mix. In the 1950s. more than half of our Nations new arrivals came from Europe. In the 1970s. the percentage 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. My legislation. which became a provision of the House immigration reform bill. restored balance and fairness to our immigration law. It authorized approximately 65.000 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. To my great regret. the conferees failed to include this language in the conference report. The conference report provides. instead. for 5.000 additional nonpreference visas for all of western Europe for each of the next 2 years. Visas are to be directed to those countries that have had a sharp falloff in immigration since 1965. among them Italy. Ireland. Greece. and over a dozen other countries. While I concede that providing 5.000 additional visas is an improvement over current law. it is hardly an adequate solution to the sharp drop in western European immigration. Inclusion of my provision. authorizing a sufficient number of visas to redress the present imbalance. would have been appropriate for this immigration reform legislation. It is fully consistent with the goal of reestablishing control of our borders by reducing illegal immigration. I am sorry the House does not have the opportunity today to adopt my provision. This conference report does represent. however. a substantial first step toward restoring geographic balance to the immigration mix. Further. the statement of conference managers instructs the immigration subcommittees to address the issue of legal immigration early next year. and I intend to work closely with them in that effort. I therefore support the conference report. despite the fact that it falls far short of what I hoped it would achieve. because it represents a first step toward true reform of the worldwide quota system.