Attorney General Robert Kennedy denounced U.S. immigration laws — the McCarran-Walter Act–as discriminatory and cruel in testimony yesterday before the House Immigration Subcommittee. He called for an entirely new and liberal approach.
Mr. Kennedy testified in support of a bill first sent to Congress by his brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, and now backed by President Johnson. The bill would eliminate the national origins quota system. Mr. Kennedy said the racist system of establishing quotas based on ethnic and national origin was a world-wide source of embarrassment to the United States.
The Attorney General termed the immigration law a present “source of anguish to many of our own citizens with relatives abroad.” He said the biased provisions caused “loss to the economic and creative strength of our nation as a whole.” He described the present immigration regulations as “inconsistent with our principle and out of step with our history.” “This nation was built by immigrants of courage and ability who come from many lands,” he stated.
The new bill would end the national origins quota system over a five-year period. Quotas would be reduced 20 per cent per year, and redistributed on a fair basis. Those with the greatest ability to contribute to the welfare of the United States would get first preference; However, the new bill would increase the total eligible to enter the United States each year by only 8,000–from 157,000 to 165,000.
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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.
