Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 - wikipedia Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 Other short titles McCarran -- Walter Act Long title An Act to revise the laws relating to immigration, naturalization, and nationality ; and for other purposes. Enacted by the 82nd United States Congress Effective June 27, 1952 Citations Public law 82 - 414 Statutes at Large 66 Stat. 163 Codification Titles amended 8 U.S.C. : Aliens and Nationality U.S.C. sections created 8 U.S.C. ch. 12 Legislative history Introduced in the House as H.R. 5678 by Francis E. Walter ( D - PA ) and Pat McCarran ( D - NV ) on October 9, 1951 Passed the House on April 25, 1952 ( passed ) Passed the Senate on May 22, 1952 ( passed ) Reported by the joint conference committee on May 23, 1952 ; agreed to by the House on June 10, 1952 ( adopted ) and by the Senate on June 11, 1952 ( adopted ) Vetoed by President Harry S. Truman on June 25, 1952 Overridden by the House on June 26, 1952 ( 278 -- 113 ) Overridden by the Senate and became law on June 27, 1952 ( 57 -- 26 ) Major amendments USA PATRIOT Act 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. Contents 1 Veto 1.1 Override 2 Provisions 2.1 Race 2.2 Politics and religion 2.3 Naturalization 3 Enforcement 4 Modifications 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Veto 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. Override 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. 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. 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. Race The McCarran - Walter Act abolished the `` alien ineligible to citizenship '' category from US immigration law, which de facto only applied to people of Asian descent. Small, token quotas of about 100 people per country were established for the countries of Asia. However, people of Asian descent but who were citizens of a non-Asian country counted towards the quota of their Asian ancestral country. Overall annual immigration from the Asiatic Barred Zone was also capped at 2000. Passage of the act was strongly lobbied for by the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, Japanese American Citizens League, Filipino Federation of America, and Korean National Association ; though as an incremental measure, as those organizations wished to see national origins quotas abolished altogether. McCarran - Walter Act allowed for people of Asian descent to immigrate and to become citizens, which had been banned by laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Asian Exclusion Act of 1924. Chinese immigration in particular had been allowed for a decade prior to McCarran - Walter by the Magnuson Act of 1943, which was passed because of America 's World War II alliance with China. Japanese Americans and Korean Americans were first allowed to naturalize by the McCarran - Walter Act. Overall changes in the perceptions of Asians were made possible by Cold War politics ; the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 allowed anticommunist Chinese American students who feared returning to the Chinese Civil War to stay in the United States ; and these provisions would be expanded by the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. Politics and religion 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 ban 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 ''. If one was a polygamist, advocate of polygamy or your religious belief or ideology advocates the practice of polygamy, they would not be allowed in the United States under this law. Naturalization 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. Kōbō 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, however members of Communist Parties are still banned from becoming citizens of the United States. 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 Jump up ^ Jacobson, David ( September 5, 1997 ). Rights Across Borders : Immigration and the Decline of Citizenship. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 49 -- 50. ISBN 978 - 0801857706. Jump up ^ Tichenor, Daniel J. ( May 6, 2002 ). Dividing Lines : The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Princeton Studies in American Politics. Princeton University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978 - 0691088051. quotes part of this passage Jump up ^ Peters, Gerhard ; Woolley, John T. `` Harry S. Truman : `` Veto of Bill To Revise the Laws Relating to Immigration, Naturalization, and Nationality., '' June 25, 1952 ``. The American Presidency Project. University of California -- Santa Barbara. Retrieved August 24, 2013. Jump up ^ Senator Pat McCarran, Cong. Rec., March 2, 1953, p. 1518 Jump up ^ A later amendment, effective November 3, 1986, added the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. `` Acquisition of U.S. Nationality in U.S. Territories and Possessions ''. U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 -- Consular Affairs. U.S. Department of State. 2013 - 01 - 03. Retrieved 2016 - 01 - 12. Jump up ^ Leonard, David ; Lugo - Lugo, Carmen, eds. ( 2015 ). Latino History and Culture : An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 850. ^ Jump up to : Yoo, David ; Azuma, Eiichiro, eds. ( 2016 ). `` Cold War ''. The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History. Oxford University Press. p. 173. Jump up ^ Cheng, Cindy ( 2014 ). Citizens of Asian America : Democracy and Race During the Cold War. NYU Press. p. 177. Jump up ^ Szmanko, Klara, ed. ( 2015 ). Visions of Whiteness in Selected Works of Asian American Literature. McFarland. p. 20. Jump up ^ Okihiro, Gary, ed. ( 2013 ). `` McCarran - Walter Act ''. Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment. ABC - CLIO. p. 113. Jump up ^ 1962 World Book Encyclopedia, Page 52, Book - 13. Petition for Naturalization Jump up ^ `` Larry McMurtry testimony ''. Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and Administrative Justice of the House Judiciary Committee, January 3, 2005. PEN / USA. Retrieved January 25, 2013. Jump up ^ Mitchell, Tony ( 1999 ), Dario Fo : People 's Court Jester ( Updated and Expanded ), London : Methuen, pp. 162 -- 163, ISBN 0 - 413 - 73320 - 3 ^ Jump up to : Reginald Whitaker ( 1987 ). `` Double standard : the secret history of Canadian immigration ''. Lester & Orpen Dennys. ISBN 9780886191740. A few years ago it became known that Pierre Elliott Trudeau, before he became prime minister of Canada, had been barred from travelling to the United States. ^ Jump up to : Reginald Whitaker ; Gregory S. Kealey ; Andrew Parnaby ( 2012 ). `` Secret Service : Political Policing in Canada : From the Fenians to Fortress America ''. University of Toronto Press. p. 208. ISBN 9780802007520. Retrieved January 25, 2013. By the late years of the Cold War, the prominence of Canadians barred at one time or another from entering the United States became a highly visible public scandal : those so treated included Pierre Elliot Trudeau ( on whom the FBI maintained a file, even while he served as prime minister ) and the popular writer Farley Mowat, who characteristically parlayed his experience into an entertaining book, My Discovery of America. Jump up ^ Hyder, Thomas. `` The `` Activist '' Lives of Gust Alonen and Carl Paivio ``. IndyMedia. Retrieved 29 January 2015. Jump up ^ See Wikisource : Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States 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 Immigration to the United States and related topics Relevant colonial era, United States and international laws Colonial era Nationality law in the American Colonies Plantation Act 1740 18th century Naturalization Act 1790 / 1795 / 1798 19th century Naturalization Law 1802 Civil Rights Act of 1866 14th Amendment ( 1868 ) Naturalization Act 1870 Page Act ( 1875 ) Immigration Act of 1882 Chinese Exclusion ( 1882 ) Scott Act ( 1888 ) Immigration Act of 1891 Geary Act ( 1892 ) 1900 -- 1949 Naturalization Act 1906 Gentlemen 's Agreement ( 1907 ) Immigration Act of 1907 Immigration Act 1917 ( Asian Barred Zone ) Emergency Quota Act ( 1921 ) Cable Act ( 1922 ) Immigration Act 1924 Tydings -- McDuffie Act ( 1934 ) Filipino Repatriation Act ( 1935 ) Nationality Act of 1940 Bracero Program ( 1942 -- 1964 ) Magnuson Act ( 1943 ) War Brides Act ( 1945 ) Luce -- Celler Act ( 1946 ) 1950 -- 1999 UN Refugee Convention ( 1951 ) Immigration and Nationality Act 1952 / 1965 Refugee Act ( 1980 ) Immigration Reform and Control Act ( 1986 ) American Homecoming Act ( 1989 ) Immigration Act 1990 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act ( IIRIRA ) ( 1996 ) Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act ( NACARA ) ( 1997 ) American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act ( ACWIA ) ( 1998 ) 21st century American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act ( AC21 ) ( 2000 ) Legal Immigration Family Equity Act ( LIFE Act ) ( 2000 ) H - 1B Visa Reform Act ( 2004 ) REAL ID Act ( 2005 ) Secure Fence Act ( 2006 ) DACA ( 2012 ) Executive Order 13769 ( 2017 ) Executive Order 13780 ( 2017 ) Visas and policies Visa policy Permanent residence Visa Waiver Program Temporary protected status Asylum Green Card Lottery US - VISIT Security Advisory Opinion E-Verify Section 287 ( g ) National Origins Formula Government organizations Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement U.S. Border Patrol U.S. Customs and Border Protection Immigration and Naturalization Service ( INS ) Board of Immigration Appeals Supreme Court cases United States v. Wong Kim Ark ( 1898 ) United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind ( 1923 ) United States v. Brignoni - Ponce ( 1975 ) Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting ( 2011 ) Related issues and events Economic impact Eugenics in the United States Guest worker program Human trafficking Human smuggling Coyotaje Immigration reform Immigration reduction Mexico -- United States barrier Labor shortage March for America Illegal immigrant population Reverse immigration 2006 protests Unaccompanied minors from Central America List of people deported from the United States Geography Mexico -- United States border Canada -- United States border United States Border Patrol interior checkpoints Proposed legislation DREAM Act ( 2001 -- 2010 ) H.R. 4437 ( 2005 ) McCain -- Kennedy ( 2005 ) SKIL ( 2006 ) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act 2006 STRIVE Act ( 2007 ) Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act 2007 Uniting American Families Act ( 2000 -- 2013 ) Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 SAFE Act ( 2015 ) RAISE Act ( 2017 ) Immigration stations and points of entry Angel Island Castle Garden East Boston Ellis Island Sullivan 's Island Washington Avenue Operations `` Wetback '' ( 1954 ) `` Peter Pan '' ( 1960 -- 1962 ) `` Babylift '' ( 1975 ) `` Gatekeeper '' ( 1994 ) `` Endgame '' ( 2003 -- 2012 ) `` Front Line '' ( 2004 -- 2005 ) `` Streamline '' ( 2005 -- present ) `` Return to Sender '' ( 2006 -- 2007 ) `` Jump Start '' ( 2006 -- 2008 ) `` Phalanx '' ( 2010 -- 2016 ) State legislation California DREAM Act ( 2006 -- 2010 ) Arizona SB 1070 ( 2010 ) Alabama HB 56 ( 2011 ) Non-governmental organizations Arizona Border Recon Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform National Immigration Forum Center for Community Change We Are America Alliance CASA of Maryland Mexica Movement Mexicans Without Borders Federation for American Immigration Reform Minuteman Project Minuteman Civil Defense Corps California Coalition for Immigration Reform Save Our State Center for Immigration Studies National Korean American Service & Education Consortium ( NAKASEC ) NumbersUSA Negative Population Growth Migration Policy Institute Utah Compact Center for Migration Studies of New York Patriot Act Titles I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X ( History ) Acts modified Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 Electronic Communications Privacy Act Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act Money Laundering Control Act Bank Secrecy Act Right to Financial Privacy Act Fair Credit Reporting Act Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 Victims of Crime Act of 1984 Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act People George W. 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Question: when was the immigration and nationality act passed
Answer: June 27, 1952