B’nai B’rith Publication Presents Plan for Increased Immigration Without Upping Quotas

A blueprint of procedure on how to solve the immigration crisis “without raising the issue of increasing the immigration quotas” is contained in an article by Abram Orlow, authority on immigration affairs, in the forthcoming December issue of The National Jewish Monthly, published by B’nai B’rith.

Referring to the section of the present Immigration Act which provides that not more than ten percent of the quota for any given nationality may be issued in any calendar month unless the quota is less than 300, Mr. Orlow declares that an amendment is needed immediately, providing that “whatever is left of the ten percent each month shall be redistributed in the succeeding month among those whose quota numbers are blocked or unavailable.”

Pointing out that the present system theoretically allows 153,879 quota immigrants annually, Mr. Orlow reveals that “that figure has never been reached or even nearly reached.” Quoting official figures, he discloses that during the last eight years the largest number of quota immigrants to enter the U.S. in any one year was 62,402, in 1939, and that only 11,623 entered in the year ending June 30, 1945. The number entering during the year ending June 30, 1946, has not yet been published, but Mr. Orlow estimates it at a maximum of 35,000.

Criticizing the Immigration Act for creating “unavailable quota numbers,” he points out that if U.S. consuls “were to issue a total of 153,879 quotas a year, the problem which now faces immigrants desiring to enter the U.S. would be in most part solved. He cites, as examples, the British quota of 65,721 a year, of which only 2,400 were used in 1945; the German quota of 27,370, of which only 1,190 were used in 1945; and the Irish quota of 17,853 a year, of which only 232 were used in 1945. These three countries enjoy approximately 110,000 of the total 153,000, yet only 3,700 of them were used in 1945, he points out.