Revision of American immigration laws to conform with national interests and principles, and to eliminate discredited racist and bureaucratic approaches is recommended in an 80-odd page booklet entitled, “Americanizing Our Immigration Laws,” issued by the American Jewish Committee.
The booklet contains the testimony presented before the Immigration Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on September 23, 1948, by Irving M, Engel, chairman of the executive committee of the American Jewish Committee, on behalf of the Committee, HIAS, USNA, Jewish Labor Committee, and Synagogue Council of America, The specific proposals for changes, contained in the A.J.C. booklet, are:
1. That Congress make the quota system more flexible by permitting the carrying over of unused quotas from year to year and the transfer of unused quotas from one country to another. This action would make possible full utilization of the ceiling figure established by law. 2. That the carry-over restrictions of the law be modified to permit the establishment of a pool of the unused quota of the previous year and that this pool be administered without regard to national origins. 3. That steps be taken to eliminate the concept of racial discrimination from our immigration laws, and to extend quotas to groups heretofore inadmissible.
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