President Eisenhower renewed his efforts yesterday to have Congress revise existing immigration laws prior to its adjournment, it was learned here today.
The President wrote a letter yesterday to Senator Arthur V. Watkins, sponsor of a series of amendments to the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act and the Refugee Relief Act. Mr. Eisenhower’s letter emphasized that unless Congress acts at the present session, immigration from a number of countries will be drastically reduced when the visas that have been available to those countries under the Refugee Relief Act are exhausted this summer.
The President restated an appeal he has made twice in the last year for amendment of the Refugee Relief Act to permit reallocation of visas “from countries where they are not needed to countries where they have been exhausted.” It is estimated that when the program expires at the end of this year, there will be 40,000 German and Austrian visas unused, while quotas for refugees in other affected nations will be exhausted.
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