Immigration Policy
Kennedy introduced and was a strong supporter of the 1965 Hart-Celler Act – signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson – which dramatically changed U.S. immigration policy. "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."
Kennedy asserted that the bill would end the favoring of Europeans for immigration into the United States. The 1965 legislation replaced the Immigration Act of 1924, which favored immigrants from northern and western Europe and Canada. Proponents of the 1965 bill argued that immigration laws and quotas were discriminatory, and that American immigration policy should accept people not on the basis of their nationality. This also abolished the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Kennedy's bill was designed to reallocate visas to poorer countries and also added the stipulation that extended families of visa holders would also be eligible for visas. Although Kennedy promised the bill would not increase the number of immigrants into the United States or change the ethnic composition of the United States, immigration numbers doubled from 1965 to 1970 and then doubled again before 1990.
Kennedy was the chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, and remained a strong advocate for immigrants. Kennedy subsequently took a lead role in several other would-be immigration measures, including the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S. 1033) ("McCain-Kennedy") in 2005 and the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, a bipartisan measure worked out with President George W. Bush which ultimately failed on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Among other reforms, the 1033 legislation proposed allowing "undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to come out of the shadows, submit to background checks, and register for a legal status. Immigrants and their families would have six years to earn permanent residence and ultimately citizenship."
Read more about this topic: Political Positions Of Ted Kennedy
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