Passage of the recommitted Displaced Persons Bill “as it stands,” during the 1950 session of Congress, was demanded of the Senate by the Citizens Committee on Displaced Persons today.
The legislation, written by Rep. Emanuel Celler, which would remove certain anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish provisions of the present D.P. statute, should not be “mutilated and emasculated beyond recognition, as the apparent attitude of Senator (Pat) McCarran would portend,” the Committee asserted. During the protracted debate on the House-approved measure last week which resulted in a 36-30 vote to send the bill back to the Judiciary Committee until next year, a message from Sen. McCarran, who was absent, claimed that the objectives of the bill written by Rep. Celler are to destroy immigration barriers and flood the country with aliens.
Action to halt deportation proceedings against several hundred European refugees from Communist-dominated countries until final action on the Celler Bill was urged on United States Attorney General J. Howard McGrath by Rep. Arthur G. Klein, yesterday. Rep. Klein pointed out that the refugees, mostly Catholic and Jewish leaders who were persecuted by the Nazis, appear to be qualified to remain in the United States except for the date of their entry. Passage of the Celler Bill by the Senate would have changed the entry date to let them remain.
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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.
