IMMIGRATION: Let It Go Hang

In the warm afterglow of the Hungarian revolution, President Eisenhower laid U.S. prestige on the line by urging Congress to increase the annual number of immigrants to the U.S. from about 155,000 to about 190,000. He also laid U.S. good faith on the line—to the cheers of Congressmen and editorial writers—by admitting 24,-600 Hungarian refugees to the U.S. "on parole," with the tacit understanding that legislation to grant them permanent visas would come later.

Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Mississippi's Democrat James Oliver Eastland. and the House Judiciary Committee, starring Pennsylvania's Democrat Francis E. ("Tad") Walter,...