Immigration Policy Revision

Report Outline
Proposals to Overhaul Immigration Law
Changes in American Immigration Policy
Operation of Present Immigration Laws
Issues in Debate on Immigration Policy
Special Focus

Proposals to Overhaul Immigration Law

Johnson's Call for Ellimination of Inequities

Anew effort to wipe out patent inequities of American immigration policy, launched by President Kennedy a few months before his death, has been assured of continued White House support. President Johnson made his position clear in his State of the Union address on Jan. 8. He told Congress:

We must…lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those who seek entry into our country, particularly those with much-needed skills and those joining their families. In establishing preferences, a nation built by the immigrants of all lands can ask those -who now seek admission: “What can you do for our country?” But we should not be asking: “In what country were you born?”

Johnson, meeting five days later with members of the House and Senate subcommittees concerned with immigration, strongly endorsed a draft bill sent to Congress by the late President last July 23 that would gradually eliminate the present system of limiting admissions by means of country and area quotas. The proposed legislation would not reopen the “golden door” to all foreigners who wish to settle in the United States. But it would progressively substitute the skills and talents of would-be immigrants, or their relationship to residents of the United States, as the primary qualification for admission in place of simply the country of origin.