The stricter labor provisions of the landmark Immigration Act of 1965, which abolished the 40-year-old national-origins quota system dominating American immigration policy, may serve to reduce the total number of immigrants to the United States, a study prepared by Sidney Liskofsky, immigration specialist of the American Jewish Committee, suggested today.
“Under the old quotas, the door was open to certain immigrants unless the Secretary of Labor closed it. Now, with strict schedules of occupations in undersupply and over-supply, the door is closed unless he opens it,” Mr. Liskofsky asserted.
The primary change in the Immigration Act of 1965 is its abolition of the national-origins quotas and of the restrictions on persons of half-Asian parentage. In addition, it established higher numerical ceilings for immigration visas — 170,000 for the Eastern Hemisphere, and 120,000 for the Western — to be granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Pro-immigration groups, Mr. Liskofsky declared, are generally satisfied with the new law. But they are concerned about hardships that might ensue from the labor-clearance provisions and from certain defects, such as the absence of a statute of limitations on deportation and a visa-review board. “Efforts will doubtless be made in the future by the pro-immigration groups as well as by the Department of Justice and the Congressional immigration committees to correct the law’s remaining weaknesses,” he predicted.
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