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Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, compiled U.S. immigration laws into one cohesive act that governed immigration and citizenship in the United States. The conservative authors of the act, Senator Pat McCarran (D-Nevada) and Representative Francis E. Walter (D-Pennsylvania), pushed for the passage of restrictive immigration to preserve national security. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 represented immigration as a national security issue and employment issue. The act established a criterion for naturalization and bars that lead to ineligibility or removal of an alien. The act required applicants to be of “good moral character, attachment to the principles of the Constitution, and favorable disposition to the United States.” Immigrants linked to the United States’ geopolitical enemies, crimes involving moral turpitude, or undesirable behaviors violated the “good moral character” requirement and as a result became a threat to national security. This allowed the government to deny admission, refuse naturalization, deport, or exclude privileges such as employment visas under the act. During a time of anticommunism hysteria from the Cold War, the act ultimately became a way to regulate national security threats from entering, living, or working in the United States, which marginalized certain ethnic groups.

Legislative History
The Cold War tension fueled fears and suspicions of infiltrating Communist and Soviet spies and sympathizers within American institutions and federal government, prompting the Second Red Scare and McCarthyism in the United States. The anticommunist hysteria from the Cold War sparked tension among legislators regarding the immigration system in the United States. Driven by the anticommunist political atmosphere of the postwar period, restrictionists pushed for selective immigration to preserve national security. Senator Pat McCarran (D-Nevada), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed an immigration bill to maintain status quo in the United States and to safeguard the country from communism, “Jewish interests”, and undesirables that he deemed as external threats to national security. His immigration bill encompassed the McCarthy Era politics of the 1950s with anti-Communist barriers and restrictive measures including increased vetting, deportation, and naturalization procedures. The bill also placed a preference on economic potential, special skills, and education. In addition, Representative Francis E. Walter (D-Pennsylvania) proposed a similar immigration bill to the House.

In response to the liberal immigration bill of Representative Emanuel Celler (D-New York) and Senator Herbert H. Lehman (D-New York), both Senator Pat McCarran (D-Nevada) and Representative Francis E. Walter (D-Pennsylvania) combined their restriction immigration proposals into the McCarran-Walter bill and recruited support of patriotic and veteran organizations. However, various immigration reform advocacy groups and testimonies by representatives from ethnic coalitions, civil rights organizations, and labor unions challenged proposals of restrictive immigration and pushed for a more inclusive immigration reform. Opponents of the restrictive bill such as Senator Herbert H. Lehman attempted to strategize a way to bring the groups together to resist McCarran’s actions. Despite the efforts to resist, McCarran’s influence as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee ultimately overpowered the liberal immigration reform coalition.

President Harry Truman vetoed the McCarran-Walter Act because the act continued national-origins quotas that discriminated against potential allies that contain communist groups within. However, Congress overrode the veto by a two-thirds vote of each house. The 82nd United States Congress enacted the act and it became effective on June 27, 1952. The passage of the McCarran-Walter bill, known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, solidified more restrictive immigration movement in the United States.

Preference System
Good Moral Character was an ideal character of beliefs and values beneficial to the country. The United States measured good moral character through a person’s ability to behave morally and honor the Constitution and laws of the United States. The concept of “good moral character” dated back to the Naturalization Act of 1790. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 required applicants to be a person of good moral character who adhered to the principles of the Constitution and was in favorable disposition to the United States. The act gave the government the authority to deem an immigrant who lacks good moral character ineligible for admission or naturalization and deport the immigrant who engaged in a list of activities that violated the “good moral character” requirement such as crimes involving moral turpitude, illegal gambling, alcohol use, drug trafficking, prostitution, unlawful voting, fraud, etc. These violations of the good moral character requirement undermined the U.S. national security.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 eliminated the contact labor bar and placed employment-based preferences for aliens with economic potential, skills, and education. In addition, the act created H-1, a temporary visa category for nonimmigrants with merit and ability. The act also created the H-2, a process to approve visa for temporary foreign laborers if there is no one available to work in the labor field.

Class of Aliens Inadmissible and Ineligible for Visa
Before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration vetted newcomers to the United States and often denied entry to new immigrants on subjective conclusion of perverse acts such as homosexuality, prostitution, sexual deviance, crime of moral turpitude, economic dependency, or perverse bodies like hermaphrodites or individuals with abnormal or small body parts during the 1900-1924. During this time, immigration authorities denied immigrants entry on this subjective basis by issuing “likely to be a public charge.” However, by the 1950s, the immigration authorities solidified this screening measure into law when they enacted a provision against such perverse acts such as prostitution or any immoral sexual act in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Alien who were feeble-minded, mentally disabled, physically defects, or professional beggars were also ineligible for admission.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 placed provisions on drinking and substance use as a requirement for admission. The act stated that any immigrant who “is or was…a habitual drunkard” or “narcotic drug addicts or chronic alcoholics” challenged the notion of good moral character, a requirement for citizenship in the United States. As a result, immigrants who participated in excessive alcohol or substance use were inadmissible to the United States.

According to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, polygamy violated the notion of good moral character under Section 101(f). Any alien in a polygamous relationship was inadmissible or ineligible for naturalization as a result. In addition, the polygamy bar denied the polygamous alien to immigration benefits such as employment-based visa, asylum, or relief.

Class of Deportable Aliens
Crime involving moral turpitude were acts, behaviors, or offenses that violate the standards of a country. The concept, “crimes involving moral turpitude,” have been in United States immigration law since the Immigration Act of 1891, which made those who committed crimes involving moral turpitude inadmissible. Despite the difficulty of defining “crimes involving moral turpitude,” the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 established provisions that help define “crimes involving moral turpitude.” Under sections, “Inadmissible aliens” and “Deportable aliens,” aliens were ineligible for naturalization if suspected of or committed criminal convictions, illegal gambling, alcohol use, drug trafficking, prostitution, unlawful voting, etc. within five years of entry. The list of crimes involving moral turpitude lead to removal of the alien.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 deemed aliens who were anarchists or members of or affiliated with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian organizations that plan to overthrow the United States as deportable aliens. Aliens who were successors of any association of Communism, regardless of name changes, still fell under the deportable aliens. Aliens who advocated, taught, wrote, published in support for communism, a totalitarian dictatorship, and the overthrowing of the United States were also deportable aliens.

Under Section 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the Attorney General had the authority to stop the deportation of an alien if the Attorney General believed that the alien would face physical persecution if he or she returns to the country. The period of withholding deportation was up to the Attorney General as well.