The House Subcommittee on Immigration and Nationality will hold hearings in May to discuss proposals for revising the existing refugee provisions in the immigration law, Rep. Peter W. Rodino, Jr. (D.,N.J.) the subcommittee chairman, told the 88th annual meeting of United Hias Service, the worldwide Jewish migration agency. Rep. Rodino said his subcommittee will consider substantial liberalization and expansion of the current refugee program.
He advocated an “open-ended refugee program with continuous legislative oversight” because he had found it “illogical to set a specific number on refugee admissions and later worry about separating a family or deciding which of two individuals may suffer the greater hardship.”
Another speaker, Max M. Fisher of Detroit, who is president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, lauded the heroism of the Soviet Jews. The present exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union holds the promise of restoring large numbers of people to the free world who had been thought lost forever, Fisher remarked.
He commended President Nixon and former Attorney General John Mitchell for making it possible for increased numbers of Soviet Jews to emigrate here under the Attorney General’s parole authority and asserted that a similar provision in the Hitler years could have saved thousands of lives. He commended United Hias Service officials for recognizing the opportunity offered by the parole provisions.
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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.
