Senate Committee Aids in Direction of Selective Immigration Policy

What appears to be the first step of a policy in the direction of the so-called selective immigration program, lately agitated, has been taken by the Senate Immigration Committee, which has reported favorably to the Senate, with certain changes, Senator Metcalf’s bill which would grant preference, within one-half of the quota, to immigrants who are needed by bona-fide employers to engage in executive, administrative or supervisory work for which unemployed persons cannot be found in the United States.

The bill would also admit within one-half of the quota such workmen who are needed here to work independently or as employers, together with their wives and dependent children under the age of 21. Senator Copeland was designated to file the report on behalf of the Committee.

Several reservations, to the effect that preference can only be accorded when the Secretary of Labor determines the need of the immigrants in which, that preference shall not be given to more than two persons exclusive of wives or dependent minor children in any individual cases and that the bill shall not be construed as modifying the existing law affecting the importation of alien contract labor, are contained in the measure.

An important aspect of the bill, which is approved by Secretary of Labor Davis, is that it will supplant the existing preference to immigrants skilled in agriculture, because it will meet this need without the present alleged evil by means of which agriculturists are admitted without regard to the demand and without any obligation to engage in agriculture. Under the new bill, this would be impossible. The existing preference to the parents of American citizens will continue to share in this half quota with the new category proposed by the bill.