U.S. Immigration Quotes
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.
At the time, the United States required that Poles and many others from many countries were required to first get a visa (permission to travel to the United States). To do this the prospective visitors had to stand in long lines at the U. S. Embassy and or Consulates where there was never enough staff. Congress wanted to check on all potential visitors to make sure they were not terrorist affiliated and they would return to Poland. At the same time Congress wanted to promote tourism to the United States. But they also didn’t want to spend money for staff (usually non Americans overseas to make the visa process reasonable or have a process where people could obtain visas via Internet or mail. This is a classic case of Congressional incompetence in copying with their own conflicting objectives.
