Senate Committee Approves Bill for Admission of 100,000 Dp’s to U.S. Within Two Years

The Senate Judiciary Committee today reported favorably to the Senate a report on displaced persons and a bill calling for the admission of 100,000 DP’s to the United States at the rate of 50,000 a year for the next two years. It also proposed the creation of a three-man displaced persons commission to administer the bill.

The report and bill were prepared under the direction of Sen, Chapman Revercomb of West Virginia, chairman of a Judiciary sub-committee which also included Sens, Forrest C. Donnell of Missouri, John Cooper of Kentucky, J. Howard McGrath of Rhode Island and Patrick McCarran of Nevada. Sen. Cooper was in favor of admitting 75,000 a year for the two-year period, and Sen. McGrath urged 70,000 a year, but both these recommendations were defeated -in the full committee, as was one by Sen. Homer Ferguson of Michigan for 100,000 a year for two years.

The deadline on a second section of the bill dealing with the general immigration picture was extended to May 1.

Displaced persons eligible under the bill are those who, from Sept. 1, 1939 to Dec. 22, I945 entered Germany, Austria or Italy, or who on July 1, 1948are in Italy or the American, British or French zones of Germany or Austria, or persons who were victims of Nazi persecution who fled and were later returned to one of those countries. Priority in the issuance of visas will be given to persons who are in displaced persons camps on July, 1 of this year, but “in exceptional cases,” visas may be issued to eligible DP’s and orphans living outside the camps.

The bill was reported out with one dissenting vote cast by Sen. William Langer of North Dakota. A number of amendments were defeated. Most of them were variations on the number of persons to be admitted each year. One that was defeated would have allowed numbers to accumulate from one year to the next and another would have chosen DP’s with skills in proportion to a cross-section of skills found in the DP camps.

50% MUST BE AGRICULTURAL WORKERS; ADOPTED ORPHANS ARE NON-QUOTA IMMIGRANTS

The bill would set up a three-member commission to administer the act with regard to restrictions on qualifications for immigration, on whether adequate Job and housing facilities exist for them in the community in which they would wish to settle and whether they might become public charges. The members of the commission would be appointed by the President with Senate approval, would receive an annual salary of $10,000 and their terms would run to June 30, 1951. The commission would be required to submit a yearly report to the President and Congress on the operation of the program.

The bill also requires that not less than 50 percent of the visas issued shall be available only to persons previously engaged in agricultural pursuits and who will be employed in the United States in the same type of work.

Each DP admitted under the legislation would be required to sake a report every six months to the commission regarding his job, and housing facilities for himself and his family. The DP’s admitted would be carefully screened by U.S. consular personnel before being admitted. The bill carries the warning that any person who willfully misrepresents his case for the purpose of gaining admittance to the U.S. as a DP, shall “thereafter not be admissible to the United States.”

Displaced orphans in Italy or the British, French or American zones of Germany or Austria, lawfully adopted by American citizens, may be admitted to the U.S. as non-quota immigrants, the bill provides.