make a final report to the President and the Congress. Such reports shall include the recommendations of the Commission as to what changes, if any, are needed in the immigration laws in the light of its study. The Commission's recommendations shall include, but shall not be limited to, recommendations as to whether, and if so how, numerical limitations should be imposed upon immigration to the United States from the nations of the Western Hemisphere. In formulating its recommendations on the latter subject, the Commission shall give particular attention to the impact of such immigration on employment and working conditions within the United States and to the necessity of preserving the special relationship of the United States with its sister Republics of the Western Hemisphere.

(d) The life of the Commission shall expire upon the filing of its final report, except that the Commission may continue to function for up to sixty days thereafter for the purpose of winding up its affairs.

(e) Unless legislation inconsistent herewith is enacted on or before June 30, 1968, in response to recommendations of the Commission or otherwise, the number of special immigrants within the meaning of section 101(a) (27) (A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, exclusive of special immigrants who are immediate relatives of United States citizens as described in section 201 (b) of that Act, shall not, in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1968, or in any fiscal year thereafter, exceed a total of 120,000.

(f) All Federal agencies shall cooperate fully with the Commission to the end that it may effectively carry out its duties.

(g) Each member of the Commission who is not otherwise in the service of the Government of the United States shall receive the sum of $100 for each day spent in the work of the Commission, shall be paid actual travel expenses, and per diem in lieu of subsistence expenses, when away from his usual place of residence, in accordance with section 5 of the Administrative Expenses Act of 1946, as amended. Each member of the Commission who is otherwise in the service of the Government of the United States shall serve without compensation in addition to that received for such other service, but while engaged in the work of the Commission shall be paid actual travel expenses, when away from his usual place of residence, in accordance with the Administrative Expenses Act of 1946, as amended.

(h) There is authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, so much as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.

PREFACE

The United States is a nation of immigrants. To the average American the concept of the immigrant conjures up a picture of sailing ships and steamers from Europe unloading families at Ellis Island. This concept is correct but incomplete. There is another source of immigrants, sustaining for themselves and their children the same desires and dreams as their Eastern Hemisphere counterparts. These are the nativeborn citizens of the independent nations of the Western Hemisphere. Sometimes overlooked in broad considerations of American immigration, the Western Hemisphere share of immigrant visas has increased during the last four decades and currently is approaching half of the new immigrants.

As compared to immigration from the Old World, conditions shaped by geography, economics, and history cause significant variations in both the types and patterns of Western Hemisphere immigration. Twice daily, 5 days a week, refugees from Castro's Cuba are airlifted to the United States and enter under parole; each arrival represents a potential permanent immigrant. Thousands of workers cross our contiguous borders daily. These are the Mexican and Canadian "commuters" who have qualified for the twin basic immigration privileges of residence and employment but exercise only the latter. Each is an immigrant.

The architect from Brazil is an immigrant; so is his wife, and so is the live-in maid from Jamaica. All hold the American dream; all add to the melting pot. Their numbers are not inconsiderable. For the decade ending in 1966, 1,245,000 native born citizens of the Western Hemisphere were admitted as immigrants into the United States.

These men and women have come to the United States under a policy of nonquota immigration maintained during the whole history of the Republic. Though potential immigrants from Western Hemisphere independent nations have had to fulfill the medical, literacy, "non-public-charge," and other requirements of the immigration laws, they have not been subject to any specific, national numerical quotas. Unlike their Eastern Hemisphere counterparts, otherwise qualified potential immigrants have had no long wait for a quota number.

When national quotas were established in 1924, the admission of immigrants from independent countries of the Western Hemisphere was left unrestricted, and in the codified Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 this exemption from national quota requirements was continued. "An immigrant who was born in Canada, the Republic of Mexico, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Canal Zone, or an independent country of Central or South America and the spouse or the child of any such immigrant, if accompanying or following to join him" was the 1952 language, and this exemption was presented in the July 1963 proposals of President Kennedy and reaffirmed in the January 1965 proposals of Pres

ident Johnson for broad legislative changes in the 1952 Act. The administrations' bills excluded from any numerical limitation not only those immigrants born in the older independent countries of the Western Hemisphere, but also native-born citizens of the newly independent states in the area.

Supporters of these proposals argued that there was no valid reason for deviating from this special Western Hemisphere relationship. They urged that not only did a current problem fail to exist with regard to the size of Western Hemisphere immigration, but also that imposition of a numerical limitation could create difficulties in the field of foreign relations.

Those opposing continuance of the nonrestrictive policy argued that recent increases in Western Hemisphere immigration indicated the need to alter older policies and that a limitation should be adopted as a part of the general rewriting of immigration law, allocating to the Western Hemisphere, as to the Eastern, a specific number of immigrant entries against a hemisphere-wide ceiling.

As passed in the House of Representatives, the 1965 legislation continued the nonrestrictive policy with respect to Western Hemisphere immigration. In Senate consideration, however, an amendment was adopted to provide an annual numerical ceiling of 120,000 on such immigration effective July 1, 1968, provided Congress did not "affirmatively provide otherwise" prior to that date. The Senate also provided for the appointment of a Select Commission to consider this and related questions with respect to Western Hemisphere immigration.

In conference both these Senate proposals were accepted and the present law was enacted by the Congress and approved by the President in October 1965. Appointment of members of the Select Commission was announced in June 1966, and an interim letter report of the Commission was made to the appointing authorities in June 1967.

In May 1967, Representative Celler proposed to the Commission that the date for the imposition of the 120,000 ceiling on Western Hemisphere immigration be extended from July 1, 1968 to July 1, 1969, and that the date of the final report of the Select Commission be extended from January 15, 1968 to January 15, 1969. Legislation to this effect passed the House of Representatives in the summer, but no action was taken in the Senate, and this report will complete the activities of the Commission save for hearings and work in the "commuter" area referred to later in the body of this report.