Congress is expected to approve Immediately after the present Easter recess a compromise DP immigration bill calling for the admission of at least 300,000 DP’s which was passed this week by the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Emanuel Celler, at the approval of the President, according to Rep. Francis E. Walther, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
The bill provides for the admission of 18,000 former members of Gen. Wladislaw Anders’ Second Polish Corps, which has been charged with containing anti-Semitic elements. The measure, which would also admit 4,000 Shanghai refugees, authorizes the President to grant admission to another 100,000 in 1952 if he finds that other nations are accepting a comparable share of the refugees.
Under existing legislation, DP’s who entered Germany after Dec. 22, 1945, are ineligible for admission to the United States. The new compromise bill advances this date to Jan. 1, 1949. Preferences for DP’s from the Baltic States and for farmers are eliminated from the new bill although there is a provision placing farmers at the top of the preferred list of DP trades. The revised measure also penults the admission of ethnic Germans up to one-half the German quota to 1952. Germans who assisted in persecutions of Jews, however, or who have proven themselves hostile to the United States, would be barred. The bill also drops the requirement of assurances of housing and employment for DP’s being admitted.
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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.
