With the topic of Trump and his executive order on Immigration (and the various arguments surrounding it) many people are now looking to history to find historical examples of similar conduct either enacted or struck down. As a history student I am not immune to this curiosity so I dug around myself and found this legislation passed in 1952. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (also known as the McCarran–Walter Act) limited immigration coming from various nations, established a quota system, and limited the type of refugees coming into the nation. The bill tended to favor family members of legal American immigrants and desirable immigrants that would become valuable to the American labor force. It did block many people from immigrating to the US. This of course had similar arguments to what we're seeing today. It was co-wrote by Pat McCarran (D-NV) and Francis Walter (D-PA) and sponsored by the Democrat Party. It was passed quickly in both capitol chambers. It was vetoed by then President Harry S. Truman who saw the bill as discriminatory. It went before the Senate and Congress once more and Truman's vote was turned over by a vote of 278/113 in the House and 57/26 in the senate. What amazed me the most about this bill was the words of one of it's co-authors. Pat McCarran when trying to defend the bill against Truman's veto was quoted saying: I agree with Senator McCarran and I think his words are even more valuable today than they were in his own time period. You can read it in full here: Pub.L. 82–414, 66 Stat. 163, enacted June 27, 1952
The Act abolished racial restrictions going back to the Naturalization Act of 1790 and ushered in the era of mass immigration. The 1952 Act retained a quota system for nationalities but immigrants with special skills or relatives of U.S. citizens who were exempt from quotas and who were to be admitted without restrictions.
