"This bill says simply that from this day forth those wishing to immigrate to America shall be admitted on the basis of their skills and their close relationship to those already here. This is a simple test, and it is a fair test. Those who can contribute most to this country--to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit--will be the first that are admitted to this land."
~President Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill, Liberty Island, New York
Intolerability of Restrictive Immigration
Eric Foner, Dewitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University.
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The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act)
"...the fear of an 'invasion' by 'undesirable' immigrant ethnic and racial groups simply was not as great as in the past."
~Congress and the Nation:1965-1968
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Many persevered in supporting immigration reform in the wake of past failures, publicly criticizing restrictive immigration. President Kennedy even drafted legislation to gradually diffuse the national origins quota system, and received approval from Democrats, Republicans, various newspapers, and immigration reform groups. His draft eventually became the outline for the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
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In 2007, Senator Edward M. Kennedy looked back on the reform of restrictive immigration in the United States.
Excerpt from Dan Stein on Sen. Kennedy and the 1965 Immigration Law.
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The 1965 act ended up focusing immigration onto family reunification and individuals with special or needed skills without flooding the American labor market.
"The bill...has as its primary objective the abolishment of the national origins quota system...and the substitution of...a system of preferences which extends priorities...to close relatives of U.S. citizens and aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence, to aliens who are members of the professions, arts, or sciences, and to skilled or unskilled alien laborers who are needed in the United States, and to certain refugees."
~Senate, Amending the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes
Back to the Immigration Act of 1952
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