Lifting the Quota

For two years a bill designed to revamp and revitalize U.S. immigration policies languished in the House Judiciary Committee's Immigration and Nationality subcommittee. But under heavy pressure from President Johnson, the subcommittee approved the bill, which was, in turn, swiftly and overwhelmingly (26-4) cleared last week by the full Judiciary Committee for certain passage in the House. It faces almost equally certain approval by the Senate--assuming there is time to bring it to the floor this session.

High time--since the now-standing immigration law is an abomination, depending as it does on "a national origins" quota system created in 1924. It was designed to reflect the U.S. population makeup as of 1920 and heavily favored North European nations, while offering only the stingiest quotas to other parts of the world. Despite all the hysterical criticism that comes its way, the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 actually liberalized the quota system, particularly for Orientals.

Even so, the national origins policy remained an unworkable patchwork of discrimination and special dispensations. Great Britain, with an annual quota of about 65,000 a year, sends no more than 25,000 immigrants to the U.S. Ireland, with a quota of 17,750, sends just 6,500. Italy, allowed to send only 5,666, has a waiting list of 249,583. India's quota is just 100, its backlog is now 16,614.

The new bill would allow the unused quotas of nations such as Great Britain and Ireland to be pooled and transferred to low-quota nations such as Italy and India. Then, by July 1968, the national origins system would be scrapped entirely. Instead, the U.S. would offer a total of 170,000 immigrant visas on a first-come, first-served basis, with a limit of 20,000 permits for any nation outside the Western Hemisphere. As the present law entails, there still would be no numerical limit within the Hemisphere. Beyond that, any parents, minor children, or spouses of U.S. citizens would be allowed to enter the U.S. without regard to national limits.

Ultimately, the bill would allow an estimated 340,000 new immigrants each year--50,000 more than at present.

In other actions, the Congress:

>Passed, in both Houses, and sent to the White House a bill authorizing $1.7 billion in military construction. It also gives Congress a stronger hand in blocking shutdowns of military installations by refusing to allow the Secretary of Defense to close any base until 120 days after he has announced his plans to House and Senate Armed Services committees. He must submit his shutdown reports between Jan. 1 and April 30 so the committees can write restrictive language into the annual military construction bills if they disapprove.

> Approved, in House-Senate joint conference, a $115 million appropriation for the Peace Corps, which will allow an expansion of field volunteers from 13,000 to 15,000 by August 1966.

>Approved, in a House Labor subcommittee, a bill to increase the minimum wage from $1.25 to $1.75 an hour by 1968 and to extend coverage to 6.1 million more workers--including farm workers for the first time. President Johnson had recommended only an extension of the $1.25 wage base to some 4.6 million additional workers.

>Approved, by a 20-1 vote in the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, a pay raise for 1.8 million civil service workers, which would increase salaries by 4.5% and cost some $770,000,000 the first year. The Administration's original request would have offered a 3% increase and totaled $406,000,000. The bill called for a raise up to $3,400 for Congressmen, who only this year had their salaries upped from $22,500 to $30,000 a year.

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