Emanuel Celler Quotes
The only people you will issue visas for are those that arrive in coffins.
Emanuel Celler, 1888-1981, U.S. Congressman (Democrat, NY), Complaint to State Department Official regarding the difficulty of European Immigrants obtaining visas, Quoted by Kurt Stone, C-SPAN Book TV, October 29, 2000
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The illegal alien problem had vexed Republican and Democratic Administrations for over 50 years and is one of the most complicated of all the problems facing the nation. She offered the voters a simple solution.
Many in Alabama were distressed that other states were benefitting from the waves of immigrants to America but relatively few were going to Alabama. They wanted more whites to diminish the proportion of Negroes. By the beginning of 21st century, many people in Alabama had turned against immigration as they feared that immigrant Hispanics and Blacks together would be a majority in the state.
The issue of admission of relatives of citizens had, in the 20th century, become controversial as some political forces worked to restrict immigration. The result of politicizing this issue was that the relatives who would receive immigration priorities would change every time Congress legislated about anything involving immigration and asylum. Immigrants from some countries could have their aunts and uncles get priority while other countries it was only siblings, children and parents. And still others would be children only. There was also racial and ethnic discrimination in that nations with white populations received a broader right to have relatives immigrate than non-white.
Emanuel Celler was an American politician from New York who served in the United States House of Representatives for almost 50 years, from March 1923 to January 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, during World War II, Celler strongly supported help for Jewish refugees fleeing Europe, and as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee for all but two years between 1949 and 1973, he ushered through the House the major civil rights movement legislation of the era. His district was based in Brooklyn and Queens.
