It will require some three months of study and preparation of administrative reguiations and procecures before United States immigration officials can put the new refugee immigration law into operation, it was reported here today. One of the complications in getting the program to admit 214,000 people under way, is that at the last minute Congress switched responsibility for implementation from the Mutual Security administration to the State Department.
The work of the voluntary organizations cooperating with the immigration program. including the Joint Distribution Committee, will prove more difficult than under previous immigration laws, it was predicted. Among the new difficulties imposed by Congress was the provision of the law which required that assurances of jobs and housing for prospective immigrants must be given on an individual, rather than a mass, basis.
Also, the law insists that each assurance shall be a personal obligation of the person submitting it. In the past the voluntary agencies assumed responsibility in many cases. Another obstacle is the law’s requirement that no visa shall be issued unless complete information is available regarding the history of the applicant for at least two years immediately preceding the application.
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.
