President Eisenhower’s failure to include in his State of the Union message any recommendation for revision of the McCarran-Walter immigration law today drew an expression of “deep regret and disappointment” from the National Community Relations Advisory Council.
The group comprises representatives of the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, and the United Synagogue of America and 30 local, state and regional Jewish councils throughout the country.
In a telegram to the President, the NCRAC called the omission especially striking in the light of Mr. Eisenhower’s campaign declarations and his 1953 request to Congress for more humane immigration legislation. “We earnestly hope that in forth-coming special message to Congress you will recommend substantial revisions to the McCarran-Walter Law so that remedial immigration legislation may be enacted in the 83rd Congress,” the telegram said.
The national and local Jewish organizations affiliated in the National Community Relations Advisory Council also protested vigorously the last-minute postponement of Senate committee hearings on the Ives-Humphrey Fair Employment Bill. In a telegram to Senator H. Alexander Smith, chairman of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, the Jewish agencies called his announced postponement of the hearings, “tantamount to blocking floor action on this bipartisan measure in this Congress.” Last May, it had been publicly announced that the hearings would take place on January 12.
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.
