Senator Irving M. Ives and Representative Jacob K. Javits, Republicans, of New York, introduced identical bills in the Senate and House today to permit displaced children under 14 years of age, orphaned by World War II, to enter the United States as non-quota immigrants.
The bill provides that the children apply for visas before July 1, 1949, and that American citizens sponsoring the orphan immigrants shall be required to adopt them.
Explaining the bill, Ives said that it provides for admission of displaced orphans outside the quota “if they are to be adopted, reared and educated by citizens of the United States sponsoring their admission.” He pointed out the comparatively small number involved, only 500 orphans seeking to immigrate here from the American zone in Germany. The total number of orphaned children in the category of potential immigrants is 6,800.
Rep. Javits, a freshman Congressman, presenting the bill as his first piese of general legislation, said that “it is important to note that the bill does not treat the children as friend or enemy on the basis of religion or race, but embraces all children who are the innocent victims of the war’s holocaust. This bill is also a tribute,” he declared, “to the enormous efforts already undertaken by great organizations for the care of Europe’s children in the United States.”
The bills were referred to the Senate and House Judiciary committees respectively.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
