Eleven Democratic Senators today joined Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Minnesota Democrat, in co-sponsoring a new immigration bill asking “complete revision and replacement” of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act and discard of the national origins quota system. The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary committee.
Paying tribute to former Senator Herbert H. Lehman of New York,, author of similar legislation in the 84th Congress, Sen. Humphrey declared that the new bill was required “in order to conform to our democratic traditions, our international declarations, and our concepts of fairness.”
Condemning the national origins quota system, Sen. Humphrey said “human beings should be judged upon the basis of their inherent worth. The worship of national origins should be eradicated from our immigration statutes.” The bill would establish a numerical limitation on the basis of one-sixth of one percent of the most recent population census–allocated without regard to national origin, race, color, or creed. Preferences would be given to reuniting families, to bringing needed skills to the United States and to providing asylum to political refugees seeking freedom.
The Senators who joined in co-sponsoring the bill, all Democrats, were Harrison A. Williams, New Jersey; Eugene McCarthy, Minnesota; Wayne Morse, Oregon; Joseph Clark, Jr., Pennsylvania; Pat McNamara, Washington; John O. Pastore, and Theodore F. Green, both of Rhode Island; James E. Murray, Montana; Richard Neuberger, Oregon; Phillip A. Hart, Michigan, and Ernest Gruening, Alaska.
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