GIO

Thank you for your question.

There are several legislative and executive actions that might have made this situation possible. This article summarizes the most significant executive and legislative actions on admission of refugees between 1945 and 1966: https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4179&context=til

I don’t find anything specific to the year 1963, but in the previous year, the Hong Kong Parole Program was initiated. Initiated in May 1962, the Hong Kong Parole Program used the Attorney General’s parole authority to assist large numbers of Chinese nationals who had fled from the Chinese Mainland into Hong Kong. By the end of 1965, a total of 15,111 Chinese refugees had been paroled into the country for resettlement. Of these, 9,126 were granted permanent residence by the end of 1966.

“In the early weeks of May 1962, there had been a large influx of Chinese refugees into Hong Kong from the mainland. Many of these refugees were being returned to China because of the pressing population problem in Hong Kong. To relieve some of the pressure for the return of these refugees into Hong Kong, on May 23, 1962, the President announced that several thousand of the refugees in Hong Kong would be admitted to the United States under the authority given to the Attorney General by the same legislation which had permitted us to bring in Hungarian and Cuban refugees.” (See more information at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/download/pdf?id=uc1.a0000134692;orient=0;size=100;seq=24;attachment=0   

Much of the administration of this program seems to have been done through internal memoranda and letters that were not published, but would probably only be available at the National Archives and Records Administration (https://www.archives.gov/contact). I have attached a newspaper article that discusses Kennedy’s announcement and mentions some of these background documents.

Documentation of President Kennedy’s announcement at a news conference is available at https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKPOF/056/JFKPOF-056-008

And the official transcript is in the 1962 Public Papers of the Presidents: https://archive.org/details/4730892.1962.001.umich.edu/page/430/mode/2up

This House Committee Print also discusses the Hong Kong Parole Program: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.a0000134668?urlappend=%3Bseq=47

There is some further discussion in the 1964 Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435066733346?urlappend=%3Bseq=12

The 1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act included provisions that allowed these refugees to adjust to lawful permanent resident status: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965

Some other legislation that might be relevant:

In 1962, Kennedy signed the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act (Public Law 87-510), which was created to help foreign nationals from the Western Hemisphere who had fled from persecution in their home countries. The act was specifically created to assist Cubans fleeing the government of Fidel Castro. The Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 allowed Congress to provide monetary assistance to refugees, particularly those fleeing from Cold War communist countries. The Migration and Refugee Assistance Act also extended the terms of the Fair Share Refugee Act and allowed nearly 20,000 refugees to enter the U.S. under the Attorney General’s parole authority between 1960-1965.  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-76/pdf/STATUTE-76-Pg121.pdf

The Emergency Repatriation Assistance Act of 1961 (Public Law 87-64) authorized the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, after consulting with the Secretaries of State and Defense, to develop plans and make arrangements for providing temporary assistance to U.S. citizens and dependents of U.S. citizens, identified by the Department of State as having returned or brought here because of destitution or illness, or because of war, threat of war, invasion, or similar crisis. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-75/pdf/STATUTE-75-Pg131.pdf

With the Fair Share Refugee Act of 1960 (Public Law 86-648), the U.S. began to regularly employ parole as a first step toward refugee resettlement. Responding to a refugee crisis in Europe after the Second World War, Congress explicitly authorized the Attorney General to parole under section 212(d)(5) of the INA an unlimited number of eligible “refugee-escapees.” The Act also enabled those who were paroled under its provisions to obtain permanent residence after two years. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-74/pdf/STATUTE-74-Pg504.pdf

The Refugee-Escape Act of 1957 allowed the admission of certain aliens eligible under the Refugee Relief Act and persons deemed "refugees-escapees," who fled persecution in Communist or Middle East countries. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-71/pdf/STATUTE-71-Pg639.pdf

The Refugee Relief Act of 1953 (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-67/pdf/STATUTE-67-Pg400.pdf#page=1) and the August 31, 1954 amendments authorized the entrance of 214,000 refugees from war-ravaged Europe and "escapees" from Communist-dominated countries.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-66/pdf/STATUTE-66-Pg163.pdf) modified the national origins quota system, which had been established under the Immigration Act of 1924: https://ballotpedia.org/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1952

The Magnuson Act (Public Law 78-199), also known as the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943, allowed Chinese immigration for the first time since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and permitted some Chinese immigrants already residing in the country to become naturalized citizens. https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/57/STATUTE-57-Pg600.pdf

I hope this information is helpful to you. If this is not what you need, or if you should require any further assistance, please let us know.

Bobby Griffith
Government Information Reference Specialist
Eagle Commons Library
University of North Texas Libraries
Bobby.Griffith@unt.edu