Senate Passes Bill to Foster Immigration From Europe

WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly approved a sweeping immigration bill Tuesday that would encourage more Europeans to immigrate to the United States, largely by creating a new class of visas for people who want to live in this country but have no family members here.

Critics charged, however, that the bill would discriminate against potential Latin American and Asian immigrants by restricting the number of extended family members who could apply for visas to join relatives already living in the United States.

Under the legislation, which would not change the 1986 federal law granting amnesty to some illegal aliens, the nation would set an annual immigration ceiling of 590,000 for the first three years, an increase of 100,000 over the present quota.

The bill, which was approved 88 to 4, now moves to the House, where its prospects are uncertain. It would be the first major reform of U.S. laws governing legal immigration since 1965.

Democratic and Republican sponsors, who said that the legislation would correct inequities in present law, noted that immigration from Europe has declined in recent years, mostly because a 1965 law eliminated the annual slots reserved for immigrants from Ireland, Britain, Germany and other countries.

The same law gave priority to foreigners who sought to join family members already living in the United States. As a result, the United States began accepting far more immigrants from Asian and Latin countries, where families are typically larger than they are in Europe.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored the bill passed by the Senate Tuesday, said that it would make U.S. immigration policy “a more accurate reflection of the national interest, more flexible and also more open to immigrants from other nations which are short-changed by current law.”

The legislation would create a point system for so-called “independent immigrants”--those who have no close family members in the United States. Points would be awarded to applicants with desirable job skills, artistic and scientific abilities and academic credentials.

Slots for Particular Persons

Of the 100,000 new immigrants permitted each year by the bill, 55,000 would be chosen according to the point system. Most of the rest would represent expansions of existing programs that provide immigration slots for particular types of persons, such as clergymen.

But Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who opposed the bill, said that it would discriminate against immigrants from Asian and Latin countries. California has especially high concentrations of both groups.

In particular, Wilson criticized a section of the bill that would cut the annual number of visas available to those who have relatives already living in the United States. Immigration slots for these people would decline from 64,000 to 52,000 in the bill’s third year and ultimately to 22,000.

Wilson also complained that the bill would give lower priority than is now available to married immigration applicants seeking to join relatives already living in the United States. Under the law, higher priority would be granted to visas for unmarried applicants.

Cites Greater Balance

Kennedy and other sponsors, however, said that the bill is designed to provide greater balance in immigration. They noted, for example, that there are an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Irish people living in the United States illegally, mostly because their visas have expired and, with no immediate family members living here, they cannot apply for citizenship.

Most of these people are believed to have entered the United States after Jan. 1, 1982, and thus would not be eligible for the amnesty provisions of the 1986 immigration law. But the bill’s new point system might enable them to remain here, sponsors said.

Most senators spoke in favor of the bill, which took years to negotiate. But there was a brief debate over one provision in the legislation that would give special visa consideration to immigrants who had invested at least $2 million in the United States and employed 10 or more U.S. residents.

U.S. ‘Open to Bribery’

Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) blasted the rule, saying that it was open to widespread abuse. Under such a provision, he said, a “known drug dealer like (Panamanian strongman Manuel A.) Noriega could buy his way past the Statue of Liberty. . . . We’d be open to bribery.”

But Kennedy, who led a successful fight to keep the provision, said that there are ample provisions in the bill to guard against undesirable immigrants.

He also praised the provision for linking U.S. economic growth to a more selective immigration policy. “It used to be around here that we were concerned about jobs and unemployment,” he said. “That’s what this provision is all about.”