A comprehensive bill to revise the McCarran Walter immigration law was introduced in both Houses of Congress this week-end by thirteen Senators and eight representatives, all Democrats. The group is headed in the Senate by Sen. Herbert H. Lehman, and in the House by Rep. Emanuel Celler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The proposed legislation would kill the national origins quota system, would eliminate statutory discriminations and distinctions between native-born and naturalized citizens, would end eliminate insubstantial grounds for denial or revocation of citizenship and would end “fractious” and “arbitrary” grounds for denial of admission of immigrants or visitors. The bill would establish an annual immigration ceiling of 250,000 persons and would set up a unified quota system based on “national need, individual aptitude and the requirements of our foreign policy.”
Another bill presented to the House by Rep. Victor L. Anfuso of New York, called for a number of changes to speed up the admission of immigrants under President Eisenhower’s Emergency Relief Act under which only some 15,000 immigrants had been admitted in the first 18 months of a total of 214,000 authorized for admission over a period of a little more than three years.
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