“There is no political support for it in this country,” he said.

Screening Suggested

Senator Byrd said he thought the Administration ought to see to it that “undesirables” be screened out of the resettlement process, naming “barmaids, prostitutes and criminals” as excludable categories.

In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Secretary of State Kissinger, Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, charged that the Administration had not informed Congress adequately about the number of refugees to be brought here.

At a news conference, L. Dean Brown, director of the Interagency Task Force on Refugees, disclosed that Florida Congressmen, led by Representative Robert L. R. Sikes, a Democrat, had compelled the Administration to trim the size of its refugees reception center at Eglin Air Force Base from a capacity of 20,000 to one of 2,500.

“They let us know they didn't want very many,” said Mr. Brown.

Democratic members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, including the chairman, Representative Joshua Eilberg of Philadelphia, told Mr. Brown yesterday that Congress would not give the full amount of aid sought by President Ford.

The President acknowledged that Americans were concerned with “serious economic problems” in this country and added:

“But out of the 120,00 refugees who are either here or on their way, 60 per cent of those are children. They ought to be given an opportunity. Only 35,000 heads of family will be moved into our total society.”

He went on to point out that the United States had absorbed over 700,000 Hungaria and Cuban refugees, adding, “They've been good citizens, and we ought to welcome these people the same way despite our economic problems.”

He also expressed the conviction that “the vast majority of Americans today want these people to have another opportunity to escape the probability of death. And therefore I applaud those who feel that way.”