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.
“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. “
If you haven’t read “Albion’s Seed”, David Hackett Fischer, you really should. You’ll enjoy it. He writes about four migrations from Great Britain that formed the culture of Colonial America. My own roots are largely the “Cavalier” culture of southern England and the Borderland Scots-Irish.