Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Rep, Emanuel Celler, New York Democrat, introduced a bill yesterday which, they say, would remove the “inequities” remaining in U.S. immigration policies and “perfect the reforms” initiated in the Immigration Act of 1965.
The 1965 act abolished the national origins quota system as a basis for selecting immigrants and substituted a preference system for various categories of immigrants.
The Kennedy-Celler legislation would provide a new “policy of asylum” for refugees who must now enter the United States under the preference priorities system. It would also grant special immigrant visas to clean up a backlog of applicants that had accumulated under the national origins quota system.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
