Flashback

I was reading a great paper on immigration, given by Economist Vernon Briggs in 1999.
Link here: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1102&context=cahrswp

Here’s a quote from it regarding the 1965 immigration reform act:
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass), the floor manager of the bill in the Senate, stated

"this bill is not concerned with increasing immigration to this country,

nor will it lower any of the high standards we apply in the selection of immigrants."

Kennedy also said "our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually," that

"the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset" and

"it would not cause American workers to lose their jobs."
(Kennedy quotes from U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, Hearing, (February 10,1965), (Washington, D.C.: US. Government Printing Office, 1965) pp 1-3.)

Briggs comments, “None of these assurances has proved to be valid. Supposedly, these assurances were made at that time because they would not be desirable policy outcomes.”