<--PREV Doc #275  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #277 Document #276; June 26, 1953 To Wilton Burton Persons Series: EM, AWF, Name Series ; Category: Memorandum The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953 Chapter 4: Striving for Unity   At your earliest convenience, would you drop in to see Senator Dirksen1 to ask him how our Bill for 240,000 immigration admissions is coming along?2 Senator Dirksen has lately, I think, been very cooperative, and indicated to me that he would work hard to get this Bill on the road.3 1 Former Taft supporter Everett M. Dirksen, who served on the Joint Committee on Immigration and National Policy, had met with Eisenhower for breakfast the morning of June 18. For developments in the Eisenhower-Dirksen relationship see no. 338. 2 For background on Eisenhower's interest in emergency legislation to aid refugees from Eastern Europe (H.R. 6481) see no. 101. 3 On July 29 Dirksen would deliver an impassioned plea in the Senate on behalf of S. 1917, the bill to authorize the issuance of 240,000 special-quota immigrant visas to escapees, German expellees, and nationals of Italy, Greece, and the Netherlands. "We should be careful not to attach any stigma of opprobrium to it [the word alien]," he said, "because those who come from foreign shores have certainly helped to build our country." Reminding Congress that the bill represented a "specific request by the President of the United States," Dirksen stressed its value as an "effective instrument in the field of foreign policy." He reviewed the safeguards and assurances that had been written into the bill and noted how many immigrants "have come to find succor and freedom, and to let the soul and spirit and talents unfold and to bring more enrichment to the economic, industrial, cultural, and social life of America" (Congressional Record, 83d Cong., 1st sess., 1953, 99, pts. 7-8: 10235-36, 10239-40). For developments on the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 see no. 328. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Wilton Burton Persons, 26 June 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 276. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/276.cfm <--PREV Doc #275  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #277

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