The sponsor of the Immigration Nationality Act – Sen. Edward Kennedy
The United States underwent a radical change the year Sen. Edward Kennedy became a sponsor to the Immigration and Nationality Act, 1965. This acted as a launching pad for his political career too. Prior to 1965, no immigrant could land at the united states apart from those from the Western Europe. As observed today by a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, the legislation did away with the operational discriminatory quotas. It resulted in family reunification being the principle reason for immigration as observed in the current times. Loads of people from Latin America to Asia came into America and one can observe that the 10 million foreign-born populations climbed up to a whopping 30 million within the following four decades.
This resulted in an immigration chain, where the wife followed along with the children and then the parents, later on followed by the extended family and even friends and acquaintances. Then, those who were entangled in the immigration enforcement laws and people who were residing in America in an illegal manner also obtained great help from this senator. Some 361 immigrants were detained in a factory raid. In 2007, Kennedy visited New Bedford to visit these detained families and later on he succeeded in convincing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department to issue special guidelines with regard to the immigrants who had children. Although, he was working with Sen. John McCain to introduce a bill that would have helped some 12 million immigrant families, it failed.
Written by srini on August 27th, 2009 with
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