The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (Pub.L. 82-414, 66 Stat. 163, enacted June 27, 1952), also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, codified under Title 8 of the United States Code (8 U.S.C. ch. 12), governs immigration to and citizenship in the United States. It has been in effect since June 27, 1952. Before this Act, a variety of statutes governed immigration law but were not organized within one body of text.
Video Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
Enactment
H.R. 5678 was named after its sponsors, Senator Pat McCarran (D-Nevada), and Congressman Francis Walter (D-Pennsylvania).
President Harry Truman, a Democrat, vetoed the Act because he regarded the bill as "un-American" and discriminatory. His veto message said:
Today, we are "protecting" ourselves as we were in 1924, against being flooded by immigrants from Eastern Europe. This is fantastic. ... We do not need to be protected against immigrants from these countries-on the contrary we want to stretch out a helping hand, to save those who have managed to flee into Western Europe, to succor those who are brave enough to escape from barbarism, to welcome and restore them against the day when their countries will, as we hope, be free again....These are only a few examples of the absurdity, the cruelty of carrying over into this year of 1952 the isolationist limitations of our 1924 law.
In no other realm of our national life are we so hampered and stultified by the dead hand of the past, as we are in this field of immigration.
Truman's veto was overridden by a vote of 278 to 113 in the House and 57 to 26 in the Senate.
Speaking in the Senate on March 2, 1953, McCarran said:
I believe that this nation is the last hope of Western civilization and if this oasis of the world shall be overrun, perverted, contaminated or destroyed, then the last flickering light of humanity will be extinguished. I take no issue with those who would praise the contributions which have been made to our society by people of many races, of varied creeds and colors. ... However, we have in the United States today hard-core, indigestible blocs which have not become integrated into the American way of life, but which, on the contrary are its deadly enemies. Today, as never before, untold millions are storming our gates for admission and those gates are cracking under the strain. The solution of the problems of Europe and Asia will not come through a transplanting of those problems en masse to the United States. ... I do not intend to become prophetic, but if the enemies of this legislation succeed in riddling it to pieces, or in amending it beyond recognition, they will have contributed more to promote this nation's downfall than any other group since we achieved our independence as a nation.
Maps Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
Provisions
The Act abolished racial restrictions found in United States immigration and naturalization statutes going back to the Naturalization Act of 1790. The 1952 Act retained a quota system for nationalities and regions. Eventually, the Act established a preference system which determined which ethnic groups were desirable immigrants and placed great importance on labor qualifications.
The Act defined three types of immigrants: immigrants with special skills or relatives of U.S. citizens who were exempt from quotas and who were to be admitted without restrictions; average immigrants whose numbers were not supposed to exceed 270,000 per year; and refugees.
The Act allowed the government to deport immigrants or naturalized citizens engaged in subversive activities and also allowed the barring of suspected subversives from entering the country. It was used to bar members and former members and "fellow travelers" of the Communist Party from entry into the United States, even those who had not been associated with the party for decades.
The act also allowed the government to prevent polygamists from entering the country. It specifically stated under Title II, chapter 2, "GENERAL CLASSES OF ALIENS INELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE VISAS AND EXCLUDED FROM ADMISSION", Section 212, sub (a), part (11): "Aliens who are polygamists or who practice polygamy or advocate the practice of polygamy". So if you are a polygamist, advocate of polygamy or your religious belief or ideology advocates the practice of polygamy, technically you won't be allowed in the United States.
It expanded the definition of the "United States" for nationality purposes, which already included Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, to add Guam. Persons born in these territories on or after December 24, 1952 acquire U.S. citizenship at birth on the same terms as persons born in other parts of the United States.
A 1962 guideline explained procedures under the Act:
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 requires an alien to apply for a petition for naturalization. This form may be obtained from any office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a division of the Department of Justice, or from any court authorized to naturalize aliens.
Before applying, an alien must be at least 18 years old and must have been lawfully admitted to live permanently in the United States. He must have lived in the United States for five years and for the last six months in the state where he seeks to be naturalized. In some cases, he need only have lived three years in the United States. He must be of good moral character and "attached to the principles of the Constitution". The law states that an alien is not of good moral character if he is a drunkard, has committed adultery, has more than one wife, makes his living by gambling, has lied to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, has been in jail more than 180 days for any reason during his five years in the United States, or is a convicted murderer.
Enforcement
The following list provides examples of those who were excluded from the Act prior to the 1990 amendment. While it has not been substantiated that all of these individuals formally petitioned to become United States Citizens, many were banned from travelling to the US because of anti-American political views and/or criminal records. Among those listed, there are noted communists, socialists, and anti-American sympathizers.
- K?b? Abe, Japanese writer
- Tom Bottomore, British sociologist
- Dennis Brutus, South African writer
- Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera singer
- Julio Cortázar, Argentine novelist
- Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet
- Michel Foucault, French philosopher
- Dario Fo, Italian playwright and recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature
- Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer
- Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature
- Graham Greene, British writer
- Doris Lessing, writer and recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature (Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) / Great Britain)
- Ernest Mandel, scholar and Trotskyist activist
- Farley Mowat, Canadian writer
- Jan Myrdal, Swedish scholar
- Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature
- Carl Paivio, Finnish labor activist and anarchist
- Angel Rama, Uruguayan scholar
- Margaret Randall, writer, translator, and activist
- Pierre Trudeau, prior to becoming Prime Minister of Canada.
Modifications
Parts of the Act remain in place today, but it has been amended many times and was modified substantially by the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965.
When regulations issued under the authority of the Passport Act of 1926 were challenged in Haig v. Agee, Congress enacted § 707(b) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1979 (Pub.L. 95-426, 92 Stat. 993, enacted October 7, 1978), amending § 215 of the Immigration and Nationality Act making it unlawful to travel abroad without a passport. Until that legislation, under the Travel Control Act of 1918, the president had the authority to require passports for foreign travel only in time of war.
Some provisions that excluded certain classes of immigrants based on their political beliefs were revoked by the Immigration Act of 1990.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, president George W. Bush implemented the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System and other border and immigration controls.
In January 2017, president Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769 made reference to the "Immigration and Nationality Act".
See also
- History of immigration to the United States
- Immigration Act of 1924
- History of laws concerning immigration and naturalization in the United States
- List of United States immigration laws
- National Origins Formula
References
Further reading
- Bennett, Marion T. "The immigration and nationality (McCarran-Walter) Act of 1952, as Amended to 1965." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 367.1 (1966): 127-136.
- Chin, Gabriel J. "The civil rights revolution comes to immigration law: A new look at the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965." North Carolina Law Review 75 (1996): 273+.
- Daniels. Roger, ed. Immigration and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman (2010)
- Rosenfield, Harry N. "Necessary administrative reforms in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952." Fordham Law Review 27 (1958): 145+.
External links
- Bertram M. Bernard Immigration Law Index, U.S. immigration and nationality law, 1952-82
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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