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N0KFQ > TODAY 24.12.16 15:46l 44 Lines 1955 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 16805_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 24
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N3IP<KA3BVJ<N0KFQ
Sent: 161224/1334Z 16805@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1952
McCarren-Walter Act goes into effect
The McCarren-Walter Act takes effect and revises America's
immigration laws. The law was hailed by supporters as a necessary
step in preventing communist subversion in the United States,
while opponents decried the legislation as being xenophobic and
discriminatory.
The act, named after Senator Pat McCarren (Democrat-Nevada) and
Representative Francis Walter (Democratic-Pennsylvania), did
relatively little to alter the quota system for immigration into
the United States that had been established in the Immigration
Act of 1924. The skewed nature of the quotas was readily
apparent. Immigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany
were allotted two-thirds of the 154,657 spots available each
year. However, the act did specifically remove previously
established racial barriers that had acted to exclude immigrants
from nations such as Japan and China. These countries were now
assigned very small quotas.
The changes that were of more concern for many critics centered
on the act's provision of much more strenuous screening of
potential immigrants. It banned admission to anyone declared a
subversive by the attorney general and indicated that members of
communist and "communist-front" organizations were subject to
deportation. In defending the act, Senator McCarren declared, "If
this oasis of the world should be overrun, perverted,
contaminated, or destroyed, then the last flickering light of
humanity will be extinguished." President Harry S. Truman took a
very different view, calling the legislation "un-American" and
inhumane. When the bill was passed in June 1952, Truman vetoed
the bill. Congress overrode his veto, and the act took effect in
December. The McCarren-Walter Act set America's immigration
standards until new legislation was passed in 1965.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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