Senate Panel Backs First Cap on Immigration

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved substantial changes in the nation’s immigration system, including the imposition for the first time in U.S. history of a cap on annual immigration.

The limitation was assailed vigorously by Latino and Asian immigrant groups, which asserted that it would prevent many family members from joining relatives in this country.

The committee’s 12-2 vote sends the measure to the Senate floor, where it is given a good chance of passage. Its chances in the House are uncertain.

The legislation would create a new category of immigrants for admission--people with skills that are in short supply in the United States--and restrict the number of visas to 600,000, with 480,000 reserved for family members.

Although supporters of the bill noted that the ceiling represents an increase over current levels, opponents pointed out that under the legislation 55,000 visas would go to an existing category of skilled and professional immigrants, who do not necessarily have family ties in the United States.

A new category of 54,000 visas would be allocated through a “point system” that awards credit based on education, age and occupation. And 11,000 would be set aside for ministers and other “special immigrants,” including 6,000 “investors.”

“It looks like we’re getting more when we’re getting less,” said Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza. “This legislation would completely undermine family sponsored immigration.”

Something Valuable to Offer

Brushing aside such objections, Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), a committee member and architect of the 1986 revision of the law dealing with illegal immigration, called the move to accommodate skilled workers and educated professionals a desirable way of bringing in “classic immigrants”--those with something valuable to offer the nation.

Many immigrant advocates have interpreted such comments as criticism of the current patterns of immigration, in which only about 10% of the immigrants come from Europe while huge numbers come from Latin America and Asia.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who has been under pressure in Massachusetts--home to many European immigrants--to make European immigration easier, joined forces with Simpson to push the legislation in the Senate. In this atmosphere, the legislation has been called, only half-jokingly, “the Irish immigration bill.”

But Kennedy, defending the measure during the committee session, asserted that it “will increase immigration opportunities from the ‘old seed’ traditional sources, such as the European countries, without reducing opportunities for immigrants from newer sources, such as Latin America and Asia.”

For his part, Simpson acknowledged that, in tackling the issue, the committee was confronting “emotion, fear, guilt and racism.”

In debating the legislation, the committee rejected a provision that would have given potential immigrants “points” for their proficiency in English.

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who led the opposition to the English provision, said before it was defeated: “We’ve never done this before in our history. Some of our parents, our ancestors, could not have emigrated if there had been points for English.”

The English provision would have carried 20 points. A person would need a minimum of 45 points to qualify for one of the 54,000 visas in the point system category. The rest of the system remains in place. For example, 10 points are awarded to people ages 21 to 35, and five points go to people ages 36 to 45.

A person could receive 10 points for a high school diploma, 10 for a bachelor’s degree and five for a graduate degree. The criteria of occupational demand and occupational training would carry 20 points each. These categories would be evaluated by the Labor Department to determine how important they are to the country.

The 600,000 annual cap on visas would remain in place for three years. At the end of three years and every three years thereafter, the Administration would be required to recommend changes in the levels.