New Immigration Policy to Place United States on Strictly Selective Basis

Proposed legislation to put immigration to the United States on a strictly selective basis is now being studied by the government and will be submitted to the next session of Congress, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learns. The plan to check the influx of foreign labor, announced recently by President Hoover, has already become effective, but it is now understood that a more comprehensive study of the situation is being made with a view to the adoption of a new immigration policy.

The new plan contemplates that the department of labor will keep the State department informed as to domestic labor conditions. If the need for certain laborers develops they would be given preference over all prospective immigrants of other occupations. At present, aliens who are first file applicants and pass the required tests, are admitted first, but under the new plan the right to immigrate would depend upon the individual’s prospects of becoming an economic asset.

Counsuls already have extensive authority over the issuance of visas and this power would be extended so that they could base their judgment of an applicant’s qualifications on the economic need of the country as well as on his personal fitness and character. The surplus of labor existing since last December is said to emphasize the need for restrictions against immigration.

“The economic depression is not the underlying reason why a program of selective immigration ought to be adopted,” the Washington Post writes in an editorial regarding the plan of selective immigration, advancing the line of reasoning to be expected often from now on. The Post points out that the “invention of new machinery is constantly increasing the productive capacity of the skilled individual workman and decreasing the number of men needed to do the country’s rough work. When business returns to normal and the ranks of the unemployed shrink to their usual status there will still be need for a selective immigration system. Under no circumstances is it probable that a great number of workmen will be in demand.

“The administrative machinery ought to be flexible enough to check immigration entirely when unemployment becomes prevalent. In normal times it should be adjusted so that only the type of workmen and artisans needed could enter. Immigration ought to be regulated on the basis of American needs. Unemployment would be negligible at present if similar policies had been adopted when they were presented in Congress several years ago.”