President Trump’s
take-it-or-leave-it approach for a DACA bill (now a leading news story) is a direct contradiction of the
1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Two main pillars of the 1965 INA are family unification and opening the world to America’s opportunities (lottery system).
Here is President
Johnson’s speech upon signing the 1965 immigration law (it is short), given at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis
Island.
If President Trump’s
bill becomes law, where will he deliver that speech?
I suggest Norway.
(If you are pressed for time, see the red highlights.)
***
President Lyndon
B. Johnson's Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill
Liberty Island,
New York
October 3, 1965
Mr. Vice
President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Ambassador Goldberg, distinguished Members of the
leadership of the Congress, distinguished Governors and mayors, my fellow
countrymen:
We have called the
Congress here this afternoon not only to mark a very historic occasion, but to
settle a very old issue that is in dispute. That issue is, to what
congressional district does Liberty Island really belong— Congressman Farbstein
or Congressman Gallagher? It will be settled by whoever of the two can walk
first to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
This bill that we
will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of
millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives, or really add
importantly to either our wealth or our power.
Yet it is still
one of the most important acts of this Congress and of this administration.
For it does repair
a very deep and painful flaw in the fabric of American justice. It corrects a
cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American Nation.
Speaker McCormack
and Congressman Celler almost 40 years ago first pointed that out in their
maiden speeches in the Congress. And this measure that we will sign today will
really make us truer to ourselves both as a country and as a people. It will
strengthen us in a hundred unseen ways.
I have come here
to thank personally each Member of the Congress who labored so long and so
valiantly to make this occasion come true today, and to make this bill a
reality. I cannot mention all their names, for it would take much too long, but
my gratitude--and that of this Nation--belongs to the 89th Congress.
We are indebted,
too, to the vision of the late beloved President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and
to the support given to this measure by the then Attorney General and now
Senator, Robert F. Kennedy.
In the final days
of consideration, this bill had no more able champion than the present Attorney
General, Nicholas Katzenbach, who, with New York's own "Manny"
Celler, and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Congressman Feighan of
Ohio, and Senator Mansfield and Senator Dirksen constituting the leadership of
the Senate, and Senator Javits, helped to guide this bill to passage, along
with the help of the Members sitting in front of me today.
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.
The fairness of
this standard is so self-evident that we may well wonder that it has not always
been applied. Yet the fact is that for over four decades the immigration policy
of the United States has been twisted and has been distorted by the harsh injustice
of the national origins quota system.
Under that system the ability of new immigrants to come to
America depended upon the country of their birth. Only 3 countries were allowed
to supply 70 percent of all the immigrants.
Families were kept
apart because a husband or a wife or a child had been born in the wrong place.
Men of needed
skill and talent were denied entrance because they came from southern or
eastern Europe or from one of the developing continents.
This system
violated the basic principle of American democracy--the principle that values
and rewards each man on the basis of his merit as a man.
It has been
un-American in the highest sense, because it has been untrue to the faith that
brought thousands to these shores even before we were a country.
Today, with my
signature, this system is abolished.
We can now believe that it will never again shadow the gate
to the American Nation with the twin barriers of prejudice and privilege.
Our beautiful
America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred different places or
more they have poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one
mighty and irresistible tide.
The land
flourished because it was fed from so many sources--because it was nourished by
so many cultures and traditions and peoples.
And from this
experience, almost unique in the history of nations, has come America's
attitude toward the rest of the world. We, because of what we are, feel safer
and stronger in a world as varied as the people who make it up--a world where
no country rules another and all countries can deal with the basic problems of
human dignity and deal with those problems in their own way.
Now, under the
monument which has welcomed so many to our shores, the American Nation returns
to the finest of its traditions today.
The days of
unlimited immigration are past.
But those who do come will come because of what they are, and
not because of the land from which they sprung [one more red highlight, below].
When the earliest
settlers poured into a wild continent there was no one to ask them where they
came from. The only question was: Were they sturdy enough to make the journey,
were they strong enough to clear the land, were they enduring enough to make a home
for freedom, and were they brave enough to die for liberty if it became
necessary to do so?
And so it has been
through all the great and testing moments of American history. Our history this
year we see in Viet-Nam. Men there are dying--men named Fernandez and Zajac and
Zelinko and Mariano and McCormick.
Neither the enemy
who killed them nor the people whose independence they have fought to save ever
asked them where they or their parents came from. They were all Americans. It
was for free men and for America that they gave their all, they gave their
lives and selves.
By eliminating
that same question as a test for immigration the Congress proves ourselves
worthy of those men and worthy of our own traditions as a Nation.
ASYLUM FOR CUBAN
REFUGEES
So it is in that
spirit that I declare this afternoon to the people of Cuba that those who seek
refuge here in America will find it. The dedication of America to our
traditions as an asylum for the oppressed is going to be upheld.
I have directed
the Departments of State and Justice and Health, Education, and Welfare to
immediately make all the necessary arrangements to permit those in Cuba who
seek freedom to make an orderly entry into the United States of America.
Our first concern
will be with those Cubans who have been separated from their children and their
parents and their husbands and their wives and that are now in this country.
Our next concern is with those who are imprisoned for political reasons.
And I will send to
the Congress tomorrow a request for supplementary funds of $12,600,000 to carry
forth the commitment that I am making today.
I am asking the
Department of State to seek through the Swiss Government immediately the
agreement of the Cuban Government in a request to the President of the International
Red Cross Committee. The request is for the assistance of the Committee in
processing the movement of refugees from Cuba to Miami. Miami will serve as a
port of entry and a temporary stopping place for refugees as they settle in
other parts of this country.
And to all the
voluntary agencies in the United States, I appeal for their continuation and
expansion of their magnificent work. Their help is needed in the reception and
the settlement of those who choose to leave Cuba. The Federal Government will
work closely with these agencies in their tasks of charity and brotherhood.
I want all the
people of this great land of ours to know of the really enormous contribution
which the compassionate citizens of Florida have made to humanity and to decency.
And all States in this Union can join with Florida now in extending the hand of
helpfulness and humanity to our Cuban brothers.
The lesson of our
times is sharp and clear in this movement of people from one land to another.
Once again, it stamps the mark of failure on a regime when many of its citizens
voluntarily choose to leave the land of their birth for a more hopeful home in
America. The future holds little hope for any government where the present
holds no hope for the people.
And so we Americans
will welcome these Cuban people. For the tides of history run strong, and in
another day they can return to their homeland to find it cleansed of terror and
free from fear.
Over my shoulders
here you can see Ellis Island, whose vacant corridors echo today the joyous
sound of long ago voices.
And today we can all believe that the lamp of this grand old
lady is brighter today-- and the golden door that she guards gleams more brilliantly
in the light of an increased liberty for the people from all the countries of
the globe.
Thank you very
much.
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