The spirit of the Immigration Act of 1965, which liberalized United States entry requirements by eliminating the old national origins quota system, is being snarled by “red tape” and U.S. Labor Department regulations, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, charged here.
In an address during the weekend before the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference, Sen. Kennedy said that the Labor Department’s interpretation of some of the clauses in the 1965 Act are “working a hardship on hundreds of thousands of people” whose entry could “fill a need in the United States.” He said he had discussed the matter with Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz who “recognizes the situation and, I believe, will make every effort to find reasonable and cooperative answers to the undeniable problems which exist.”
Sen. Kennedy, who was one of the principal backers of the Immigration Act of 1965, said that the chief problem concerns Labor Department regulations setting up categories of “open” and “closed” occupations. Would-be immigrants whose occupations are in “closed” categories will “almost certainly” be denied admission, even if they can get a job in the United States, Sen. Kennedy said.
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