Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

Catherine Walker

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, is a law that controls immigration to the United States and also the citizenship status of immigrants in America. The McCarran-Walter Act also helps control the quota of immigrants that become a citizen of the United States. This law was mainly for the Asian nations that were coming to America. The Act assigned officers to run tests on the immigrants to ensure that they are allowing people who met the criteria set in the law to come to the United States (“Major US Immigration Laws, 1790-Present.”). There have been dozens of laws that were created before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the earliest being the 1790 Naturalization Act. The 1790 Naturalization Act was “the country’s first uniform rule for naturalization. The law provides that ‘free white persons’ who have resided in the United States for at least two years may be granted citizenship, so long as they demonstrate good moral character and swear allegiance to the Constitution” (“Major US Immigration Laws, 1790-Present.”).

On June 11, 1952, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was passed by Congress. President Truman was the president in office when the bill passed and “throughout his administration had expressed reservations about any bill or measure based on race or ideology, vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto on June 27, and the law went into effect on December 24, 1952” (“McCarran-Walter Act”). Many people opposed the Act and “almost immediately, opponents of the law called for its repeal or modification” (“McCarran-Walter Act”). Truman was trying his hardest to get another law passed to make the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 not hurt as many people (“McCarran-Walter Act”). In September 1952, “before the law even took effect, he created the Presidential Commission on Immigration and Naturalization, which recommended relaxing some of the security provisions of the act” (“McCarran-Walter Act). The main reason that people were concerned about the McCarren-Walter Act was that despite “the new law corrected some of the injustices of earlier immigration law, it still favored northern and western European immigrants over those from Asia and would exclude or deport people on the basis of opinions or beliefs rather than actions” (“McCarran-Walter Act”).

The McCarran-Walter act followed the ideas that were created in the Immigration Act of 1924. The 1952 law “upheld the national origins quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924” (“The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)”). Before the law was created, there was a divide between immigration and the people who are upholding the foreign policy. There was a major concern in America for national security and not allowing people who are going to jeopardize the safety of US citizens. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952’s basis was the continue “the National Origins Quota System. It revised the 1924 system to allow for national quotas at a rate of one-sixth of one percent of each nationality’s population in the United States in 1920” (“The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)”). Which created “85 percent of the 154,277 visas available,” but it was mainly for people from northern and western Europe (“The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)”). The Act placed restrictions on the Western Hemisphere. The law created a “minimum quota of 100 visas each year, and eliminated laws preventing Asians from becoming naturalized American citizens” (“The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)”). If a person had one or more Asian parent born anywhere in the world, they would be considered in the national quota in the Asian category. President Truman was against the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 because “he thought the new law was discriminatory, and he vetoed it, but the law had enough support in Congress to pass over his veto” (“The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)”). Despite Truman’s opinion on the Act, the McCarran-Walter Act was passed, and it built on the Immigration Act of 1924.

The actual Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 law goes into great detail about everything that could be questioned about Act. The law begins at section 101 defining 40 plus words that are used throughout the law. One of the terms that stood out to me is that they define alien as “any person not a citizen or national of the United States” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). Another term was the application for admission, which was defined as a “reference to the application for admission into the United States and not to the application for the issuance of an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). There is also a set of quotas based on national origin. There are a certain number of immigrants that were allowed to come to the United States. There are certain quotas that are “allotted in each fiscal year” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). The Act also discusses what should happen when the immigrants get to America. Section 231 of the law states,

Upon the arrival of any person by water or by air at any port within the United States from any place outside of the United States, it shall be the duty of the master or commanding officer… having any such person on board to deliver to the immigration officers at the port of arrival typewritten or printed lists or manifests of the persons on board such vessel or aircraft (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952).

It is the jobs of the commanders of the transportation to determine “whether aliens (including alien crewmen) arriving at ports of the United States belong to any of the classes excluded by this Act” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). Some of the factors that exclude immigrants are whether they are “afflicted with any of the diseases or mental or physical defects or disabilities, or whenever the Attorney General has received information showing that any aliens are coming from a country or have embarked at a place where any of such disease or prevalent or epidemic” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). There are also steps that have to be taken once immigrants get to America. The law states that “upon the arrival at a port of the United States of any vessel or aircraft bringing aliens (including alien crewmen) the immigration officers may order a temporary removal of such aliens for examination and inspection at a designated time and place” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). Although they can take them to get checked out, they are not allowed to be removed from the transportation that had taken them to the United States (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952). To see if the immigrants can come to America, “the physical and mental examination of arriving aliens (including alien crewmen) shall be made by medical officers of the United States Public Health Service…” (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952).

The McCarran-Walter Act is still being talked about in the twenty-first century. For example, “the act is still used to define ‘terrorist activity,’ and the U.S. Secretary of State continues to cite the act in defining foreign terrorist organizations” (“McCarran-Walter Act”). The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 in itself will continue to be a topic of discussion throughout the twenty-first century.

Sources

“Major US Immigration Laws, 1790-Present.” Migration Policy Institute, 2013, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/CIR-1790Timeline.pdf.

“McCarran-Walter Act.” Encyclopedia.com, 2006, https://www.encyclopedia.com/politics/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/mccarran-walter-act

“The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act).” Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/immigration-act

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Public Law 414. 66 Stat. 163–282. 27 June 1952. Web. 23 April 2019.