When Congress passed the McCarran-Walter act updating our immigration laws, President Truman vetoed it because it did not abolish the quota system, and because it included both a Communism test, and a provision to deport communists. By time, President Eisenhower became president, Congress had enough votes to override Truman's veto and it was the law of the land. Eisenhower supported the law, but proposed many new provisions to address specific issues and streamline the immigration process. In 1953, Eisenhower signaled a change. He would not push for abolition of a quota system based on national origins or race, like Truman did, but rather for one that would balance National Security with freedoms.
The national origins based quota system was first established in 1924 under President Coolidge, and was set at just 2% of the population for each nationality as identified in the 1890 national census. Because the quota system was based on the 1890 national census, it heavily favored Northern European countries and all but excluded many other countries in Asia, and Eastern European. The 1924 immigration act was the law of the land for almost three decades through World War II and into the early days of the Cold War. Our nation and the world had changed significantly, the quota system was in part a reaction to labor unrest in Eastern Europe and depressed European economies after World War I. According to President Coolidge, the quota system was a Nationalist agenda to preserve American jobs for American worker and to isolate American industry from the labor unrest of Eastern Europe. But, by 1952 America faced a new kind of enemy not based upon national origin, but based on a set of ideas that were orthogonal to our democracy. After World War II, the United States was becoming increasingly alarmed by both the spread of communism in Europe and the strength of the Soviet Union. In 1948, the Truman Doctrine to support nations threatened by Soviet communism had become the default American foreign policy. This policy led to the formation of NATO in 1949 and the start of the Cold War. By the end of Truman's administration in 1952, Communism was seen as a serious threat to US democracy, not only from external forces, but also though Communist influence on American institutions and Soviet secret agents. During what was known as the McCarthy era, hundreds of Americans were accused of being either a communist or a communist sympathizer.
Thus in 1952, a quota system based on national origin alone did not have the teeth required to stop the spread of Communism. So when Senator Pat McCarran of Nevada and Representative Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, both Democrats pushed for immigration reform to address the skewed nature of the quota system, their bill included a much more strenuous screening program, banning subversives and communists. The bill went even as far as subjecting members of any communist communist-fronted organizations to deportation. There was much debate in congress between those who wanted to liberalize are immigration laws and Democratic Senators like McCarran who felt immigration laws should support national security interests. Those concerned over national security interest cited infiltration of communist and unassimilated immigrants who could threaten the foundations of American society. National Security Interests won, and the bill included a clause stating, that "no such person shall be eligible to take the oath required by section 337 of the Immigration and Nationality Act unless he shall first take an oath before any naturalization court specified in subsection (a) of section 310 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or before any diplomatic or consular officer of the United States abroad, that he has done nothing to promote the cause of communism."
While, the bill did include many positive changes to the immigration system, including family reunification, and a system that would match skills to the job needs of the nation, it kept the quota system in place. The new quota system was now based on the 1920 census, rather than the 1890 census, but Truman still considered it discriminatory. Furthermore, Truman seemed to vehemently disapprove of the addition of a Communist ban. For these and many other reasons, Truman vetoed the bill. In his veto message, Truman agreed that a modernization of the immigration laws was "unquestionably" needed, but in his opinion, the H.R. 5678 (Mcarran-Walter Act) "would be a step backward and not a step forward". Truman stated that he had "long urged that racial or national barriers to naturalization be abolished", but this act would "perpetuate injustices" of many nations and "hamper the effects" to rally all men to the "cause of freedom". Truman, said that "in good conscience" he could not support the bill. Truman said that the "greatest vice of the present quota system is that it discriminates, deliberately and intentionally, against many of the peoples of the world". According to Truman, the current quota system was based on a theory that in order to readily assimilate, Europeans immigrants needed to be admitted in proportions relative to the national population already here. This was done to keep America, primarily of English, Irish and German descent. To "put it baldly", Truman said that the idea behind this discrimination, was that "Americans with English or Irish names were better people and better citizens than Americans with Italian or Greek or Polish names". This violated the doctrine of our Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" and denied the humanitarian creed of "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
Finally, President Truman quoted Galatians 3:28, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free .... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus". What Truman wanted, was not a bill that would protect the United States from Communism, but one that would protect the refugees of Communism who were seeking asylum and a new life in the United States. Truman reminded Congress that the countries of Eastern Europe under the "communist yoke--they are silenced, fenced off by barbed wire and minefields--no one passes their borders but at the risk of his life." It is not protection from these immigrants that we need, but rather a helping hand "to save those who have managed to flee into Western Europe". Truman also opposed the provisions that allowed the deportation of communists or communist sympathizers. The provision would empower immigration officials to act as "prosecutor, judge and jury", and would substitute "totalitarian vengeance" for democratic justice.
In June of 1952, both the House and Senate had enough votes to override Truman's law, and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 became law. In 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower became President, he once again picked up the torch of reforming our immigration laws. In a Special message to Congress in January of 1953, Eisenhower recommended to Congress that they give the President the power to authorize the Attorney General to "parole into the United States" persons who have fled or plan to flee from communism persecution and tyranny. In addition, Eisenhower pushed for the new quota system to be based upon the 1950 census rather than the 1920 census, but he did not call for the complete removal of the quota system like Truman did. Eisenhower's approach was not to do away with the quota system, but to amend it. Rather than fight the 1952 Immigration act, Eisenhower proposed many revisions to it to Congress. These revisions were often more focused on streamlining and safeguarding the immigration system, rather than doing away with the quota system. In a statement prepared by the Eisenhower's Attorney General to the US Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, many of these provisions were outlined. The provisions addressed family unification, visa programs, fingerprinting, adoption, but did not call for abolishing the quota system.
So while, Eisenhower did pick up the mantle of immigration reform, he did not follow Truman's lead to liberalize our immigration system. Here is an excerpt form Eisenhower's first State of the Union address to Congress, signaling his new approach. Eisenhower was now callings for the "future study of the basis of determining quotas" that both "guard our legitimate national interests and be faithful to our basic ideas of freedom and fairness to all."
"There is one sphere in which civil rights are inevitably involved in Federal legislation. This is the sphere of immigration.
It is a manifest right of our Government to limit the number of immigrants our Nation can absorb. It is also a manifest right of our Government to set reasonable requirements on the character and the numbers of the people who come to share our land and our freedom.
It is well for us, however, to remind ourselves occasionally of an equally manifest fact: we are--one and all--immigrants or sons and daughters of immigrants.
Existing legislation contains injustices. It does, in fact, discriminate. I am informed by Members of the Congress that it was realized, at the time of its enactment, that future study of the basis of determining quotas would be necessary.
I am therefore requesting the Congress to review this legislation and to enact a statute that will at one and the same time guard our legitimate national interests and be faithful to our basic ideas of freedom and fairness to all."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9829
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14175
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=10967
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mccarren-walter-act-goes-into-effect
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/immigration-act
http://library.uwb.edu/Static/USimmigration/1952_immigration_and_nationality_act.html
http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1950s/McCarran_52.html
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/ag/legacy/2011/09/12/04-13-1956%20pro.pdf
http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2017/11/1924-calvin-coolidge-immigration-act-of.html
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