Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
‘Out of deference to the critics, I want to comment on…what the bill will not do; First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same…Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset…Contrary to the charges in some quarters, S.500 (Senate Bill 500) will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and economically deprived nations of Africa and Asia….In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as critics seem to think…Thirdly, the bill will not permit the entry of subversive persons, criminals, illiterates, or those with contagious disease or serious mental illness.…As I noted a moment ago, no immigrant visa will be issued to a person who is likely to become a public charge.…The charges I have mentioned are highly emotional, irrational, and with little foundation in fact. They are out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship. They breed hate of our heritage.’
(Senate Part 1, Book 1, pgs. 1-3).
Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY)
‘In fact, the distribution of limited quota immigration can have no significant effect on the ethnic balance of the United States…Total quota immigration is not 156,782; under the proposed bill, it would rise to 164,482…Immigration from any single country would be limited to 10 percent of the total - 16,500 - with the possible exception of the two countries now sending more than that number, Great Britain and Germany. But the extreme case should set to rest any fears that this bill will change the ethnic, political, or economic makeup of the United States.’
(Senate Part 1, Book 2, pgs. 216-18, 226, 242).
Senator Hiram Fong (R-HI)
‘…the people who have built up America, Anglo-Saxons, and the northern peoples of Europe, are not discriminated against in this bill…the people from that part of the world (Asia-Pacific Triangle) probably will never reach 1 percent of the U.S. population…Our cultural pattern will never be changed as far as America is concerned….It will become more cosmopolitan but still there is that fundamental adherence to European culture…We feel those people (from northern Europe) who have been preferred in former immigration bills would still be treated fairly…one of the reasons why the United States was attacked, on December 7, 1941, was because of these exclusionary laws (the 1924 Immigration Act) which had fomented so much bad feeling between the peoples of Japan and the United States.’ (Senate Part 1, Book 1, pgs. 72, 119, 120, 144).
106).
Representative Patsy Mink (D-HI)
‘…this bill is but a step in the right direction. It is estimated that in the total 5-year period 679,663 of the 828,805 persons entering the United States will still come from Europe…’
(HR Book 2, pg. 420).
Source of the Senate quotes:
Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization, Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Ninth Congress, First Session, on S.500 To Amend the Immigration and Naturalization Act, And For Other Purposes. Part 1: February/March; Part 2: March/June/July/August 1965 Congressional Information Service, Inc.
Source of the House of Representative (HR) quotes:
Hearings Before Subcommittee No. 1, Committee of the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Eighty-Ninth Congress, First Session, on H.R. 2580 To Amend the Immigration and Naturalization Act And For Other Purposes March/April/May/June 1965. Congressional Information Service, Inc.