All eligible displaced persons whose applications for admission to the United States are now being processed will be granted visas by the end of this year, Argyle R. Mackey, U.S. Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, told a conference of the HIAS yesterday. He estimated that 37,000 applicants will receive their visas this month.
He explained that whereas visas issued heretofore were valid for four months after issuance by the State Department, they are now valid for four months after the DP is completely cleared by all official channels. The inspection by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization officials is the last hurdle, he pointed out, and therefore regardless of now long the DP is held up by the Immigration authorities, he will still have four months to leave for the U.S. following his clearance by the Bureau which Commissioner Mackey heads.
Samuel A. Telsey, president of HIAS, told the delegates that nearly 10,000 immigrant Jews were assisted by HIAS to reach lands of permanent settlement during the first nine months of this year. He reported that the work of HIAS in Israel, in sheltering and integrating immigrants, is being expanded.
Arie Ben Tovim, Israel Consul in New York, told the conclave that although the population of Israel has been doubled in the past three and one-half years, the 670,000 newcomers to that land are fully employed and that unemployment is actually non-existent in that country today. The problem of housing, educating and integrating the immigrants is the greatest challenge the infant state faces, he asserted.
A detailed report on the HIAS functions in Israel was given by Isaac L. Asofsky. executive director, who recently returned from Tel Aviv where he concluded arrangements for HIAS participation in the operation of 135 immigrant shelters throughout the Jewish State.
The convention adopted a resolution supporting the principles of a bill proposed in the Senate, S-2343, which is designed to correct the inequities of the U.S. Immigration Laws, and which was submitted by Sen. Herbert H. Lehman in behalf of himself and 14 other Senators. The bill would establish a pool of unused quotas by which all quota immigration visas which are not used during a fiscal year would be placed in a general pool and would be available, without reference to national origin, for issuance during the following fiscal year to certain classifications of prospective immigrants in other countries.
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