Twenty-eight Democratic Congressmen, headed by Rep. Emanuel Celler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, offered yesterday a proposal to eliminate the national origins quota requirements of the immigration law and to increase the number of immigrants admitted each year. Rep. Celler will introduce a bill to carry out the changes later this week.
In a statement explaining the measure, Rep. Celler said: “Under my proposal there will be no discrimination based on national origin or race, and there will be no classification of United States citizens into two categories, native born and naturalized.”
The measure would increase immigration to a maximum of 250, 000 a year and divide this into five categories of immigrants. The number entering the U.S. in any one year from one country would be limited to 37, 500. The President could, with the consent of Congress, vary the number of immigrants in each category allowed into the country. The categories are:
Immigrants who would join their families; immigrants seeking refuge; immigrants with skilled occupational qualifications; immigrants brought here in the national interest of the U.S. , and immigrants seeking resettlement. Mothers and fathers of American citizens would be added to the classes of immigrants exempted from the quota.
A suggestion that the McCarran- Walter Act be amended to include provisions where by Jaws deported from Egypt could become U.S. citizens has been advanced by Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey in separate letters to Senator Eastland, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Langer, chairman of a subcommittee to investigate problems in connection with emigration of refugees and escapees. A spokesman for Senator Case said today that the question of introducing legislation on the subject is premature.
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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.
