A New Immigration Policy

Many Congressmen are surprised when they find that the millions of dollars poured into foreign aid since the last war have often failed to win enthusiastic friends for the United States. Much of the blame for this failure lies, with this country's stringent immigration laws. Obsolete, discriminatory provisions in the McCarran-Walter Act have created a jungle of arbitrary and unfair rulings. The result has been a growing resentment towards the United States on the part of foreign government who feel that America is excluding their nationals. On the opposite page of today's paper there is a survey of some of the shortcomings in U.S. immigration practice, including examples of the bias in the present quota system based on national origins and the absence of a uniform right of review and appeal.

In the closing sessions of Congress last August, Senator Lehman introduced a bill designed to bring immigration policy back into line with the national interest. The Lehman bill is the product of more than eight months of intensive drafting work by teams of some of the nation's most distinguished legal scholars.

One of the chief reforms advocated is a Unified Quota system to replace the national origins method now used. Instead of allocating a fixed number of immigrants to each country, the new plan would divide the total number into preference groups, designed to provide for family reunion, asylum for the persecuted, relief for over-populated areas, the special needs for technical skills, and lastly, general immigration. Also abolished is the practice of leaving a large proportion of the total quota unused.

The Unified Quota system is not only fairer to prospective immigrants, but it also removes a major source of international friction by wiping out racial and national discrimination. Adoption of the Lehman bill would mean gearing the quota system to the foreign policy interests and internal needs of the United States, rather than to obsolete prejudices.

Other difficulties eliminated by the Lehman Act include the double qualification standard, lack of co-ordination, and the difficulty of appeal for the immigrant. By providing a commission that would make a thorough investigation of the immigrant in his own country, the Lehman Bill avoids the repetitious job now fumbled by employees of the Justice and State Departments. The alien denied a visa would have the further assurance of a right to appeal to a special board that could over-rule discriminatory decisions by individual consuls.

While these revisions in the organization and quota system are the major advantages of the new bill, numerous other provisions add to its merit. Especially needed are alterations in its present blunderbuss security provisions that trap innocent visitors and ship crewmen in the confusion of intricate safeguards. The bill would tighten regulations against the possible entrance of actual subversives while removing the unnecessary and complicated security checks. In addition, many passages of the McCarran Act are reworded to eliminate harsh, ambiguous, and inconsistent standards.

In the present climate of fear and suspicion of anything foreign, it is doubtful whether the Lehman bill can pass through Congress. But this bill, or one like it, is the only way to alleviate the antagonisms that present laws have promoted, and thus are the most effective ways of serving the national interest, and indeed, the interests of humanity.