An editorial appeal to the United States Government to overhaul its immigration laws to permit the entrance of a substantial number of European displaced persons is published in the current issue of Life magazine.
Asserting that it is time for the U.S. to review its attitude toward displaced persons and the immigration problem as a whole, the magazine declared “we have a deep moral obligation not to be too exclusive.” It supported bills now before Congress which would permit unused quotas to be offered to approximately 100,000 DP’s in Europe regardless of nationality.
Life pointed out that although President Truman issued an order last December to facilitate the migration of refugees in the American zone of Germany to this country, red tape and the fact that unused quotes are non-cumulative have deprived the refugees of some 30,000 visas which might legally have been issued since December. It said that only 3,000 European immigrants arrived in this country during the last nine months.
Referring to President Truman’s plea to admit 100,000 Jews to Palestine immediately, Life stated that it was a “cheap gesture which put us in the position of trying to make the British the scapegoats for our own unwillingness to take in DP’s.” If the United States were as hospitable in proportion to its population and area as it asked the Palestine authorities to be, the magazine said, “we should let in 10,000,000 immigrants this year.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
