President Eisenhower told Congress today in his State of the Union message that the United States “must continue to strengthen” its mutual security efforts and make economic aid more effective. While he did not mention the Middle East specifically, he urged “greater use of repayable loans, through the Development Loan Fund, through funds generated by sale of surplus farm products, and through the Export-Import Bank.”
The President failed to include in his message a call for revision of the frequently criticized immigration law. In his previous messages to Congress he delineated inequities in the law and called for revision, but the basic defects were never corrected by Congress. It is possible that he may send a separate message on immigration law revisions to Congress later this session.
While efforts to bring about basic changes in the immigration legislation during the last session of the Congress were not successful, a law which provides some measure of relief for the remaining refugees in Europe and other countries was passed and became effective last September. Aiming its other provisions, the new law eliminates the mortgaging of quotas under the former Displaced Persons Act and Refugee Relief Act, and it authorizes the issuance of 18, 656 special non-quota immigrants visas which remained unused under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 when that Act expired at the end of 1956.
It is hoped that thousands of Jewish individuals who have been waiting to come to the United States, including some of the new refugees from Egypt, will be able to benefit from this legislation. It is estimated that about 6, 000 Jewish immigrants will arrive in this country during 1958 under the new law and under the basic immigration law.
New York’s two Senators, Irving M. Ives and Jacob K. Javits, made it clear today that they will fight in the Senate for an overhauling of immigration laws. There is a serious need, the Senators contended, for a study by a commission of members of Congress and the public. They will propose in a bill that the President select four members and that the other four be picked by the Vice President, as presiding officer of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House.
Such a commission, they said, would be assigned to adjust immigration to “the present national interest” by studying “the operation and effects” of the Walter-McCarran Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952. This act was enacted over President Truman’s veto.
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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.
