Speech #1010223138

Speaker. I rise todsy to address an issue of paramount importance to this great Nation. Many of my colleagues. as well as myself. have been inundated with mail from constituents on the subject of immigration. One thing is certain. it is not easy to address the issue if one does not know the history behind it. Please allow me to share with my colleagues some of this history. Up until the end of the 19th century. Immigration did not carry many of the negative perceptions that it does today. Instead. it was considered mutually beneficial to both the Immigrants and the United States. The immigrants. some of whom are in this chamber. came to the United States for religious and political reasons. as well as for a new start in life. The United States benefited from the immigrants by fulfilling their needs for new citizens who would participate in national. economic. and political growth. as well as a humanitarian desire to provide a refuge for the oppressed of other lands. As the Nation developed. and its reputation as the "Promised Land" increased. so did immigration. In the first decade of the 20th century. immigration reached 8.795.386. the highest number to date. The second highest number was 5.735.811 in 191120. More than 1 million people entered the country in the years 1905. 1906. 1907. 1910. 1913. and 1914. It was at this time that the basic Immigrant population began to change from Northern and Western Europeans to Southern and Eastern Europeans. This increase in immigration. coupled with the Nations growing economic strains. began to generate domestit political opposition to unrestricted immigration. Following World War I. the opposition led to restrictive legislation based on the ethnic odgins of the immigrants. and also on the size of immigrant flow. By the 1930s. this legislation. along with the economic disadvantage of the Great Depression. had resulted in a large reduction in the number of immigrants. During the post World War I period. the pattern of Immigration consisted of refugees and both temporary and undocumented workers. Primarily. refugees were coming to escape the ravages of World War I. In addition. agdcultural workers. both legally and illegally. were also coming from countries such as Mexico. These workers draw parallels to todays rampant and also unpopular undocumented aliens. As a result. a national origin quota system. restrictIng the number of immigrants that the United States could accept from a particular country. was developed. However. immigrants continued to come. This system was extended with few revisions in 1952. and was In effect until To more fully understand the issue of immigration. we must first define its categories. Primarily. there are three different groups of people who come to different countries. The first are refugees who flee. usually In large groups. from political or religious persecution. Many Immigrants on the otherhand. come voluntarily. generally as individuals and in an or. derly fashion. Illegal or undocumented aliens generally come for economic reasons. They come outside of the law. Since the 1940s. when humanitarian concerns were of the utmost Importance. the focus and the goals of immigration have changed. Todays immigrants mainly come for economic gain. In the 1960s the national origins quota system was repealed. During the 1960s and 1970s. tho flow of refugees from other nations required special legislation to be put into effect. The equal treatment of all nations and family reunification emerged as the primary goals of our policy for admitting immigrants. The flow of Illegal or undocumented alians resulted in political pressure for a better way to restrict illegal immigration. During the 1980s. we were very busy trying to come up with a workable approach with both our past tradition of asylum. as well as the economic and political realities of the present. Legislation with flexibility for refugees within the framework of the basic immigration law was enacted In In 1986. legislation aimed at controlling illegal immigration was enacted. We focused our attention on legal immigration. mainly on numerical limits on permanent immigration. This concept first originated in 1965. with some amendments following. Most recently. concern has arisen over the growing number of Immigrants admitted on the basis of family reunification. This type of immigration has greatly outpaced the number of independent nonfamily Immigrants. and the limited number of visas available under the preference system to certain countries. There is also concern about the backlogs under the existing preference system and. by some. the admission of