Every single House member of a new joint Congressional “watchdog” committee created to study operation of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act voted to pass the Act over President Truman’s veto, it was learned today. Rep. Emanuel Celler, the House’s leading advocate of liberal immigration legislation, was denied a seat on the body but Rep. Francis E. Walter, who has expressed anti-Semitic remarks on the floor of the House, was made a member.
The Joint Committee on Immigration and Nationality Policy will have strong influence over any attempt to carry out changes which President Eisenhower has said must be made in the law. It is seen here as an indication that the new Administration will take no effective action to revise the spirit of the controversial act.
Speaker Joseph W. Martin, Jr., named the following House members to the joint committee: Representatives Louis E. Graham, D-Pa., Ruth Thompson, R-Mich., Patrick J. Hillings. R-Calif., Francis E. Walter, D-Pa., and J. Frank Wilson, D-Texas. All those appointed voted to override President Truman’s veto of the McCarran-Walter Act.
When the names were announced, Rep. Celler asked Speaker Martin if he could delay the appointments. Mr. Martin replied that it was too late. Furthermore, Mr. Martin said, the Democratic leadership had cleared the names of Congressman Walter and Wilson. Minority leader Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, confirmed that the Democrats had approved the naming of Rep. Walter and Rep. Wilson and the elimination of Congressman Celler.
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