“Icould be wrong, sir, but in his last years of life, this particular Congressman realized what a mistake he had made by opening the immigration floodgates.”
I don’t know which Congressman you are referring to.
You do have a good knowledge of American political history from that time.
Very sorry, but I confused the staffer you were referring to with Congressman Emanuel Celler, who sponsored the immigration bill in the House.
My bad :-(
He had a strong anti-quota-system track record: his 1924 maiden speech in the House was critical of the then brand-new Johnson-Reed Act (the second quota law; the first had been enacted three years previously, and the final one came along in 1929).
I have an American friend who is 91 years old and still remembers Congressman Celler.
But I have heard that Celler really became critical of the 1965 Immigration Act - but by that time the damage had been done :-(
The Center for Immigration Studies has an article online dealing with “our subject”, the Hart-Celler Act, too.
This article, among other things, sheds a light the role of Congressman Francis Walter in the immigration debate of the Eisenhower/Kennedy era, too. Walter, although a Democrat, robustly defended “his” immigration law, the one he had co-sponsored in 1952.
I can warmly recommend it, I just don’t know whether linking to it from here might be allowed by the moderation (this is also why I did not link to Mr. Auster’s essay “The Path...”. I really am unsure how linking might go down with the moderators).
P. S.: Thank you very much for your kind words about me, Mr. Pelham. They are greatly appreciated :-)
You see, I’m a historian by training, and in spite of having a focus on the Middle Ages, I’ve always been interested in American history - due to personal sympathies ;-)
Once, aeons ago, I was asked to hold a lecture on the “formation of the American People”. Thus, I had to do research on the theme of migration to the US then and now. A really fascinating task it was for me, which I remember with fondness even today.