Ted Kennedy Offers Bill to Reform Immigration
Oct. 12, 1967

By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer

Tired of waiting for the Administration, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced legislation yesterday aimed at inequities still clouding the Nation's immigration and naturalization policies.

Kennedy said the proposals cover "by far the most controversial questions" left untouched by the 1965 Immigration Act that repealed the national originas quota system.

Meanwhile, one of the most controversial features of the 1965 Act -- a limitation of 120,000 immigrants a year from Western Hemisphere nations -- touched off dissension at a meeting of a special 15-member Commission named to consider its feasibility.

Supported by conservative groups such as the American Legion and the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies, the 120,000 limitation will go into effect next July unless Congress revokes it.

At yesterday's meeting, Senate Republican Leader Everett M. Dirksen (R-Ill.), a Commission member, maintained that the Administration struck a bargain to support the quota. He argued that this was the price for passage of the 1965 Act.

Favors Changes

A Commission majority including Kennedy and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.), however, apparently favors abandoning the 120,000 limitation for some other system, such as labor certifications allowing skilled Canadians and Latin Americans to come to the United States so long as there is a job market for them.

But Dirksen presumably has the support of the House and Senate Immigration subcommittee chairmen, Sen. James O. Eastland (D-Miss.) and Rep. Michael A. Feighan (D-Ohio). They thus appear to hold a trump card over any recommendations the Commission makes unless Kennedy and Celler can find a way to bring the proposals directly to the House and Senate floors.

The new Kennedy immigration bill introduced yesterday is cosponsored by 21 other Senators and by Celler in the House. It does not tackle the hemispheric quota controversy.

The bill would re-establish an appeals board to review denials of immigrant visas by American consuls abroard for relatives of U.S. citizens or of permanent resident aliens here.

Policy of Asylum

It would also lay down a comprehensive policy of asylum and re-establish a statute of limitations on deportation proceedings, Kennedy said.

He said the bill was prompted by the Administration's decision, reported to him early this year, to make no recommendations "for the forseeable future."

Kennedy contrasted this with the Administration's promise during floor debate on the 1965 Act to propose additional reforms "at an early date."

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