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{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle = Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
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The '''Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952''' ({{USStatute|82|414|66|163|1952|06|27}}), also known as the '''McCarran–Walter Act''', codified under [[Title 8 of the United States Code]] ({{usctc|8|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.
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{{USBill|82|hr|5678}} was named after its sponsors, Senator [[Pat McCarran]] (D-[[Nevada]]), and Congressman [[Francis Walter]] (D-[[Pennsylvania]]).
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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.
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==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 of the United States|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.<ref>A later amendment, effective November 3, 1986, added the [[Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands]].{{cite web|url=https://fam.state.gov/FAM/07FAM/07FAM1120.html#M1121_4_2 |title=Acquisition of U.S. Nationality in U.S. Territories and Possessions |access-date=2016-01-12|date=2013-01-03|work=U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 – Consular Affairs|publisher=U.S. Department of State}}</ref>▼
===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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Latino History and Culture: An Encyclopedia|editor1-first=David|editor1-last=Leonard|editor2-first=Carmen|editor2-last=Lugo-Lugo|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|page=850}}</ref> Overall annual immigration from the [[Asiatic Barred Zone]] was also capped at 2000.<ref name="Yoo">{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History|chapter=Cold War|editor1-first=David|editor1-last=Yoo|editor2-first=Eiichiro|editor2-last=Azuma|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|page=173}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Citizens of Asian America: Democracy and Race During the Cold War|first=Cindy|last=Cheng|publisher=NYU Press|year=2014|page=177}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Visions of Whiteness in Selected Works of Asian American Literature|editor1-first=Klara|editor1-last=Szmanko|publisher=McFarland|year=2015|page=20}}</ref> [[Japanese Americans]] and [[Korean Americans]] were first allowed to naturalize by the McCarran-Walter Act.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment|editor1-first=Gary|editor1-last=Okihiro|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2013|page=113|chapter=McCarran-Walter Act}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Yoo"/>
===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 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.
===Naturalization===
▲It expanded the definition of the "United States" for nationality purposes, which already included [[Puerto Rico]] and the [[Virgin Islands of the United States|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.<ref>A later amendment, effective November 3, 1986, added the [[Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands]].{{cite web|url=https://fam.state.gov/FAM/07FAM/07FAM1120.html#M1121_4_2 |title=Acquisition of U.S. Nationality in U.S. Territories and Possessions |access-date=2016-01-12|date=2013-01-03|work=U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 – Consular Affairs|publisher=U.S. Department of State}}</ref>
A 1962 guideline explained procedures under the Act:<ref>1962 World Book Encyclopedia, Page 52, Book-13. Petition for Naturalization</ref>
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