John F. Kennedy on Immigration

OpEd: More immigrants today than in JFK's immigration book

Using Kennedy's numbers, there are as many illegal aliens in the US today as all the German and Italian immigrants who ever came, the two largest immigrant groups in our history. Our foreign-born population today is almost equal to the 42 million who came over the 3-1/2 centuries from 1607 to 1965.

America's capacity to absorb immigration is limited

Kennedy's stance is understandable, for in 1958, he was courting liberals and intellectuals in a bid for the presidency. And the political forebears of those liberals were progressives who had joined Negro leaders and union leaders in seeking to halt the waves of immigrant labor that were depressing wages and taking jobs from our native-born, both black and white.

Don't make over the face of America with immigration

Indeed, in his litany of famous immigrants who have contributed mightily to America, JFK does not mention a single African or Asian, or any woman at all. All are males and all were from Europe, except one West Indian: Alexander Hamilton.

Source: State of Emergency, by Pat Buchanan, p.237-8 , Oct 2, 2007

1950s: Voted for liberalized immigration laws

Jack was not a liberal and did not seek that label. Congressman Kennedy repeatedly favored fiscal conservatism and often expressed wariness about big government.

Emigration decision brings incalculable uncertainty

Initially, they had to save up money for passage. Then they had to say goodbye to cherished relatives and friends, whom they could never expect to see again. Before they even reached the ports of embarkation, they were subject to illness, accidents, storm and snow, even to attacks by outlaws.

After arriving at the ports, they often had to wait days, weeks, sometimes months, while they bargained with captains or agents for passage.

Italians came for economics, not religion nor repression

Most Italians were peasants from the south. They came because of neither religious persecution nor political repression, but simply in search of a brighter future. Population in Italy was straining the limits of the country's resources and more and more people had to eke out a living from small plots of land, held in many instances by oppressive landlords.

Untrained in special skills and unfamiliar with the language, they had to rely on unskilled labor jobs to earn a living. Italians thus filled the gap left by earlier immigrant groups who had now moved up the economic ladder.

We say same of Mexicans that we said about Irish & Italians

Perhaps our brightest hope for the future lies in the lessons of the past. As each new wave of immigration has reached America it has been faced with problems, not only the problems that come with making new homes and new jobs, but, more important, the problems of getting along with people of different backgrounds and habits.

Somehow, the difficult adjustments are made and people get down to the tasks of earning a living, raising a family, living with their neighbors, and, in the process, building a nation.

Opponents have called to stop immigration since 1797

There was the basic ambiguity which older Americans have often shown toward newcomers. In 1797 a member of Congress argued that, while a liberal immigration policy was fine when the country was new and unsettled, now that America had reached its maturity and was fully populated, immigration should stop--an argument which has been repeated at regular intervals throughout American history.

But emotions of xenophobia--hatred of foreigners--and of nativism--the policy of keeping America "pure" (that is, of preferring old immigrants to new)--continued to thrive.

In the 1850's nativism became an open political movement. Still it remains a remarkable fact that, except for the Oriental Exclusion Act, there was no governmental response till after the First World War.

Limiting specific nations defies "all men are created equal"

1. postwar isolationism
2. the alleged superiority of Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic "races"
3. the fear that "pauper labor" would lower wage levels
4. the belief that people of certain nations were less law-abiding than others
5. the fear of foreign ideologies and subversion
6. the fear that entrance of too many people with different customs and habits would undermine our national and social unity and order.

National origin quotas are indefensible racial preferences

The famous words of Emma Lazarus on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty read: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Until 1921 this was an accurate picture of our society. Under present law it would be appropriate to add: "as long as they come from Northern Europe, are not too tired or too poor or slightly ill, never stole a loaf of bread, never joined any questionable organization, and can document their activities for the past 2 years."

Furthermore, the national origins quota system has strong overtones of an indefensible racial preference. It is strongly weighted toward so-called Anglo-Saxons.

Remove distinction between native-born & naturalized citizen

Source: Senate press release, "Naturalization Laws" (APP) , Aug 6, 1960