Prospects for early Congressional hearings on President Eisenhower’s proposals for liberalizing changes in the McCarran- Walter Immigration Act appeared slight today.
Chairman Francis Walter (D., Pa. ) of the House Immigration subcommittee and co-author of the nation’s immigration law, said it would be “a couple of months before hearings on the President’s recommendations could be scheduled. Sen. J. O. Eastland ( D Miss ). chairman of the corresponding Senate subcommittee was not in Washington but there was no indication that he planned early hearings on the proposed changes. Both Rep, Walter and Sen. Eastland are strongly opposed to any changes in the present law.
Rep. Emanuel Celler (D., Brooklyn), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said President Eisenhower would have to use” a little elbow grease” if he expects Congress to act on the proposals, sent to Congress last Thursday. Rep. Celler, who headed a group of 28 democratic representatives proposing changes which would eliminate the “national origins” base of the McCarran-Walter Act, urged the President to make a national radio and television speech to emphasize the importance of liberalizing the nation’s immigration law.
The President asked, among a number of proposals, that annual immigration to the United States be raised from 154, 857 to 219, 641 and that additional “unused” national origins quotas be redistributed to four regional quota pools. Rep. Celler has criticized the proposals as inadequate. Rep. Keating (R. , N. Y. ) and Rep. Hillings (R. Calif. ) have introduced bills in the House to carry out the President’s recommendations. Sen. Watkins R. , Utah has prepared a similar bill for the Senate.
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