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Kennedy may have pushed it, but did not write it. It was proposed by Representative Emanuel Celler of New York, co-sponsored by Senator Philip Hart of Michigan.

I know Ted Kennedy is not popular in conservative circles, but putting his name to this is really not accurate.

The real push for this came organized Jewish groups and politicians. Its proposer, Emanuel Celler, was a Jew. Jacob Javits was a major backer of this and similar legislation having published an article “Let’s open the gates.” Norman Podhoretz was also a proponent of increased immigration. The American Jewish Congress, The Jewish Federation, the ACLU, and the B’nai B’rith all pushed and supported it.

Most opposition came from Southern Democrats,so it was not even a Democratic thing.

So, blaming Ted Kennedy and the Democrats for this is rather silly, he (and they) were the Goyish face of Jewish desires.

It is worthy to note that Republicans mostly voted in favor of the 1965 immigration act, even many whose voting record was predominantly conservative, such as Republican Senators George Murphy of California and Karl Mundt of South Dakota. The larger Northern and Western Congressional delegations voted strongly in favor: all the New York, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey delegations and most of the Ohio (2 nays) and California (3 nays) delegations. In Virginia, the two yea votes were Republicans; all the Democrats voted against it.

I don't necessarily agree that the support for the 1965 immigration act was predominantly Jewish. Few of these representatives came from areas with significant Jewish populations, e.g., Idaho and Montana. There was no doubt a strong Catholic influence, as immigration from southern and eastern Europe, as well as Latin America, was primarily Catholic in background, with some Orthodox, Jews, and Lutherans among the eastern European immigrants. Additionally, the liberal establishment, at that time mostly mainline (liberal) Protestant, favored changes to the immigration laws in the name of fairness and the promotion of liberal policies, as most immigrants tend to vote Democrat.