LBJ's Immigration Law: 50 Years Later, America Is Still Dealing with the Unintended Consequences Still | National Review Online
by Mark Krikorian October 3, 2015
Were backers of the 1965 immigration law lying or just blinded by good intentions?
Fifty years ago Saturday, Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 into law. Though it has been modified since then, the bill — known as the Hart-Celler Act after its sponsors —established the paradigm for today’s immigration system.
All the supporters’ confident claims about the bill’s impact were proven incorrect, some within just a few years. President Johnson said, “This bill we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not restructure the shape of our daily lives.” Attorney General Robert Kennedy wrote that, “It would increase the amount of authorized immigration by only a fraction.” Senator Claiborne Pell said, “Contrary to the opinions of some of the misinformed, this legislation does not open the floodgates.”
Senator Ted Kennedy’s assurances are so absurdly off-base that they should be carved into the marble of the U.S. Capitol as a caution to anyone making claims about the future effects of grand legislation on any subject:
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.
As my colleague Jerry Kammer writes in a new paper on the 50th anniversary of the 1965 law, as early as 1968 “the New York Times reported that ‘the extent of the change’ in immigration because of the new law had surprised nearly everyone.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425034/1965-immigration-law-50th-anniversary-failed-policy
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425034/1965-immigration-law-50th-anniversary-failed-policy
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