Representative CELLAR. I can declare myself the chairman of this committee, and I do not care to do that.

Chairman MCCARRAN. I do not think that you will get away with it if you do.

Representative CELLER. I think in all fairness, if you will permit me to state briefly

Chairman MCCARRAN. You asked to be heard for 3 minutes; is that right?

Representative CELLER. That is all.

Chairman MCCARRAN. You may be heard for 3 minutes now, but I hope that that will not preclude your being heard at a later date. Representative CELLER. I did not intend that, Mr. Chairman. I simply want to make a brief statement.

Chairman MCCARRAN. You may be heard 3 minutes.

Representative CELLER. And then subsequently, I should like to be heard at length in detail on my bill. I notice that the agenda simply provides for joint hearings on the bill that you offered and the bill that my distinguished colleague, Mr. Walter, offered, and no mention is made of the bill I offered, which is H. R. 2816.

In drafting my bill, H. R. 2816, I have adhered to the technical framework of S. 716, introduced by the distinguished Senator from Nevada, in order to facilitate the holding of joint hearings and to expedite our work on this very important legislation. However, my bill, although identical in its technical framework to S. 716 and H. R. 2379, is not entirely similar in its content to Senator McCarran's measure and Representative Walter's measure.

I shall at a subsequent time explain fully the provisions of my bill. At this point, I wish only to emphasize the several important provisions of H. R. 2816, as they differ from the contents of S. 716.

Let me stress the fact that neither of the bills intend to depart from the principle of national origin and the quota system, the basic structure of our immigration policy.

However, I propose that the unused portions of the sum total of the annual quotas for each year immediately preceding each current fiscal year, be proportionately distributed for the use of intending immigrants who are chargeable to the numerically small quotas, not exceeding 7,000 annually. Each year almost one-half of the sum total of annual quotas, numbering slightly over 154,000, remains unused because some of the countries which have large quotas at their disposal simply do not send us their emigrants. On the other hand, natives of such countries as Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Austria, Egypt, Poland, and so forth, have to wait for upward of 8 to 10 years until their turn on the very long waiting lists is reached. My provision, without increasing the sum total of quota allocations, will help to remedy this situation.

Both bills provide for the long overdue, final repeal of racial exclusions and they provide that every independent country of the world, including the long-discriminated-against countries of the Orient, will receive a minimum immigration quota. Similarly, both bills permit the naturalization of every legal resident of the United States, regardless of his race or ancestry.

Here again, however, my bill differs in one respect from Senator McCarran's measure. S. 716 limits to 100 per year the immigration quotas for natives of colonial possessions such as the British West

Indies or some French-owned islands. Under existing law, the natives of those colonies may come to the United States under the quotas allocated for the governing countries and I do not perceive any reason why we should discriminate against Jamaicans, or natives of Trinidad, or Martinique, or any other colonial possession. My bill does not provide for any special limitation of this class of immigrants within the immigration quotas allocated to France, or to Great Britain, or to any other country that owns colonies.

All bills uniformly correct certain unfair provisions of existing law discriminating against women, and both measures provide for full equality in the treatment of both sexes. In this matter of treatment of spouses of American citizens and permanently resident aliens, as well as in the matter of treatment of minor alien children, including Chinese children, hitherto discriminated against, I am in full agreement with Senator McCarran and Representative Walter.

I differ, however, with Senator McCarran in the matter of treatment of ministers of all religious denominations and professors of academic schools. Under existing law, this highly desirable class of immigrants may enter the United States without quota restrictions. S. 716 would eliminate this provision and place this class of religious and scientific leaders within the quota system. Under my bill they would remain in the nonquota category, under paragraph (D) added to section 101 (a) (26).

Within the framework of the principle of national origin and of the quota system, both Senator McCarran's bill and my measure provide for as much selectivity as possible. As pointed out by Mr. Walter, our present quota system, operating under the formula of "first come, first served," deprives our defense and industrial establishments, our hospitals, our laboratories, research and educational institutions, of the services of many highly desirable skilled specialists who have much to contribute to our industry, social welfare, and our scientific development. A bill providing for such selective immigration, introduced by my eminent colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, passed the House unanimously in the Eighty-first Congress, and I am happy to note that all three bills now before you include these provisions.

In matters having to do with the distribution of preferences under immigration quotas, my bill differs substantially from Senator McCarran's proposal. Under S. 716, 90 percent of all immigration quotas would be allocated to preference classes (skilled specialists, or relatives of American citizens, or of aliens admitted for permanent residence.) Only 10 percent of the current quotas would be available to new immigrants looking for new opportunities in our land of freedom and abundance. My bill provides that all quota numbers not used by preference classes will be available to "new seed" immigration.

One of the major differences between my bill and that of Senator McCarran's is the sections covering administrative and judicial procedures as they apply to immigration and naturalization matters. I have eliminated all language indicating thought control. I have preserved the jurisdiction of courts in accordance with the American concept of justice. I have carefully refrained from making any of the provisions of my bill retroactive, bearing in mind the unconstitutionality of ex post facto laws. I have provided for the possibility of rebuttal of presumed evidence. I have made sure that deportation connected with the commission of a crime involving moral turpitude

would be ordered and effected only when there was conviction in court for such crime and where a prison sentence exceeding 1 year's duration was imposed.

I have eliminated many obsolete and difficult to define or to determine reasons for the exclusion of aliens. My reason for doing this was to avoid administrative abuses. For the same reason I have provided for a hearing in the case of any alien who has reached the United States. I have also provided for medical, not administrative, determination of excludability based on alleged physical or mental deficiencies of the immigrant.

In those sections of my bill which supersede, I trust, the immigration and naturalization sections of the Internal Security Act of 1950, I have attempted to take advantage of all the unfortunate experiences of the last few months. My bill states without equivocation our purpose to be to weed out from our midst and to keep out the subversive element, but I also tried hard to be as careful as possible and to provide for the exclusion of only those who knowingly, willingly, and voluntarily are, or were, active advocates of all forms of totalitarianism. However, on the other hand, I was very careful not to penalize anyone who might have joined some of the proscribed groups and organizations under duress, unwillingly, or as a dupe, or those who have repudiated the ideologies of hate and oppression, and who have conclusively shown such repudiation of and active resistance to those ideologies.

This basic thought underlies the security provisions of my bill: I want the administrators of the law to look at the record of the individual himself and not to classify him automatically as the component part of an objectionable group.

Finally, I do not pretend that my bill is perfect in any respect. I hope that a final measure to emerge from these hearings and considerations, will meet with overwhelming approval of the Congress and of our public opinion.

Chairman MCCARRAN. You may proceed, Mr. Ketchum.

STATEMENT OF OMAR B. KETCHUM, LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR OF THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. KETCHUM. My name is Omar B. Ketchum. I am director of the national legislative service of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, an organization composed exclusively of men who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States on foreign soil or in hostile waters during some war, campaign or expedition in which the United States has been involved.

I am grateful for the privilege of appearing before this distinguished committee to express the views of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in regard to S. 716 and H. R. 2379. While I do not pretend to be an expert in the broad field of immigration and naturalization, I do wish to inform the committee of certain resolutions adopted by our organization at its fifty-first national encampment and to recommend certain specific amendments in accordance with these resolutions.

Before doing so, however, I wish to state that we generally endorse the qualitative and quantitative restrictions in S. 716 and endorse the general principle of maintaining the various national origins that

of 1920.

compose our population on the ratio that existed during the base year We approve of the change proposed in the formula for determining the number of persons permitted entry into this country each year, since the proposed formula does not appear to increase the number of persons to be allowed admittance, but, rather, provides a simplified and more understandable process for their selection. We approve the proposed change which permits entry to the wives and children of all American citizens, free of quota restrictions, for certainly this is a right that is inherent in citizenship itself and should not on any ground be denied to citizens of this country.

We approve the more stringent procedures for the screening of immigrants and applicants for citizenship. Without doubt, the proper time and place to eliminate the undesirable is at the door where and when he first enters.

We approve the proposed equality in the treatment of sexes and certainly believe it to be in accord with the established policy of our Nation in recognizing the extension of rights to women.

We particularly approve of the proposed requirement_that_applicants for citizenship must display an ability to speak, read, and write the English language, for surely everyone must agree that one who cannot speak our language is not likely to understand us.

We recognize that the position of world leadership which our great Nation has åssumed imposes upon us the duty of setting an example for the removal of racial intolerance and inequality. We therefore approve the provisions in this proposed legislation which extend the right of citizenship and the right of admittance to this country to persons of all races. In eliminating such racial inequalities, however, we must be ever mindful of the fact that, while individual rights are equal and should not be restricted because of purely racial considerations, the individuals themselves are not always equal in capacity and understanding. We believe this fundamental proposition is recognized in the legislation now under consideration, and that proper safeguards have been established in the stringent qualitative restrictions contained in the bill. We must attempt to reconcile and balance, insofar as possible, the racial and individual rights of our immigrants, with the rights and privileges and with the duties and obligations which are imposed upon our own citizens.

In this connection, we believe, for example, that persons who seek the security of our shores, at the same time assume, or should assume, an obligation to maintain that security whenever it is threatened by a hostile power. We cannot justify the principle that imposes upon the citizens of this Nation the duty to serve in the Armed Forces, and at the same time exempts from such obligation aliens who have established their permanent residence here. Accordingly, our organization, at its fifty-first national encampment, adopted Resolution No. 117, which provides that no alien shall be permitted to become an American citizen unless he shall take an oath to bear arms in support of the United States, and further provides that any alien who refuses to bear arms or serve in the Armed Forces of the United States shall be deported. S. 716 adequately complies with the first part of this resolution by the provisions contained in section 315 (a). We urge upon this committee, however, that the provisions of section 315 (a) should be further broadened, insofar as the Congress has legal author

ity to do so, by adding after the word "States," in line 18 thereof, the following: "and shall be deported to the nation or country of which he is a native."

At its fifty-first national encampment, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States adopted Resolution No. 153, which demands a strict enforcement of the immigration laws and urges that any person whose entry into this country is based on fraud or misrepresentation shall be immediately deported. We cannot, of course, urge too strongly the strict enforcement of the immigration laws, and it goes without saying that our endorsement of the immigration laws is based on the assumption that they will be rigidly enforced. S. 716 provides in subparagraph (19) of section 212 (a) that among the classes of aliens who shall be ineligible to receive visas and shall be excluded from admission into the United States shall be

Any alien who seeks to procure, or has sought to procure, or has procured a visa or other documentation, or seeks to enter the United States, by fraud, or by willfully misrepresenting a material fact.

Section 241 (a) provides that any persons in this class shall— upon the order of the Attorney General, be deported:

This language authorizes the Attorney General to deport any person whose entry into the United States is gained by fraud or misrepresentation of a material fact, but does not make such deportation mandatory. It is not logical to say that an undesirable alien who has gained admission to this country by his own active, concealment of his own undesirability becomes a desirable resident merely because we did not sooner discover the true facts as to his undesirable character. Common sense dictates that, if he was undesirable at the port of entry, he is undesirable as a resident and should be deported. We therefore urge that S. 716 and H. R. 2379 be amended to require the Attorney General to immediately order the deportation of any such person.

I also wish to remind the committee that during the turbulent and unsettled years that have followed World War II we have been unable to provide adequate housing facilities for many of our own citizens and that a large part of the persons included in this category are the veterans of World War II, who returned home from the defense of their country and assumed family status, only to find that they had no home of their own in which to live. Although this committee is not presently concerned with the operation of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, I wish to inform you that our organization, at its fifty-first national encampment, adopted Resolution No. 95, requesting suspension of the Displaced Persons Act until adequate housing facilities have been made available to veterans of this country. This resolution I consider to be pertinent at this time, because it calls attention to a principle that should be borne in mind in the consideration of S. 716 and H. R. 2379. That is, that the national policy of admission of immigrants to this country should be coordinated and reconciled insofar as possible with the privileges which the persons now living here have a right to expect from their Nation.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States has repeatedly expressed grave concern-in fact, I might even say apprehensionin regard to both the external and internal security of this Nation.