Immigration+and+Nationality+Act+-+1965

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is the basic body of immigration law that fundamentally reshaped American IMMIGRATION  for the remainder of the twentieth century and beyond.The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 represents a significant watershed moment in Asian American history. Reversing decades of systematic exclusion and restrictive immigration policies, the Act resulted in unprecedented numbers of immigrants from Asia, Mexico, Latin America, and other non-western nations entering the U.S. In the process, these new arrivals, particular from Asia, have transformed the demographic, economic, and cultural characteristics of many urban areas, the larger Asian American community, and mainstream American society in general.
 * Overview:**

Immigration and Nationality act of 1952, known as the McCarran-Walter Act, named after the bill's sponsors: Senator Pat McCarran (D-Nevada), nd Congressman Francis Walter (D-Pennsylvania). The new Act kept many of the same immigration policies from earlier statutes with some major changes: President Truman was concerned about the decisions to maintain the national origins quota system and to establish racially constructed quotas for Asian nations. He vetoed the McCarran-Walter Act because he regarded the bill as discriminatory. Truman's veto was overridden by a vote of 278 to 113 in the House and 57 to 26 in the Senate.
 * Historical Background**
 * [|Foreign Policyhttp://hn.bigchalk.com/hnweb/hn/do/document?set=search&start=1&rendition=x-article-image&inmylist=false&urn=urn%3Aproquest%3AUS%3BPQDOC%3BHNP%3BPQD%3BHNP%3BPROD%3Bx-article-image%3B163862132&mylisturn=urn%3Aproquest%3AUS%3BPQDOC%3BHNP%3BPQD%3BHNP%3BPROD%3Bx-citation%3B163862132]**
 * Racial restrictions and gender discrimination were eliminated
 * The policy of restricting immigrants from certain countries remained but the quota formula was revised
 * Selective immigration was introduced by giving a quota preference to aliens with much-needed skills and relatives of U.S. citizens and alien residents
 * Introduced a reporting system whereby all U.S. aliens were required to report their current address to the INS each year
 * Established a central index of aliens in the U.S. for use by security and enforcement agencies

The original 1952 Act has been amended many times over the years. By far the biggest change occurred with the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965.

The bill was proposed by Emanuel Celler, cosponsored by Philip Hart and heavily supported by Senator Ted Kennedy.
 * Members:**

Prior to the mid-1960s, immigration into the U.S. was regulated by the provisions of the National Origins system. Implemented in 1924 as the U.S.'s first comprehensive set of immigration regulations, the **National Origins** system effectively limited immigration from Asia to token levels. These restrictions on Asian immigration were consistent with the overall political and cultural environment of the time that tolerated and even promoted nativism and xenophobia.
 * Origins of the Act**
 * [|Picture 1]**

However, after World War II, the new global political landscape brought the U.S. into the position of an international superpower, with new obligations and concerns around the world. As such, the U.S. could no longer maintain an isolationist stance within this new and ever-evolving dynamic of globalization and international geopolitics. Eventually, internal and external pressures led the U.S. to modify the restrictive policies of the National Origins system to reflect this new political position and the U.S.'s emerging leadership role on the international stage. The U.S. passed several pieces of legislation that allowed displaced Europeans to enter the U.S. during and after World War II. In addition, legislation was passed during this time period that allowed Chinese, Filipinos, and Asian Indians in the U.S. to finally become U.S. citizens, after several decades of systematically being denied that opportunity. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act altered several aspects of the National Origins provisions and resulted in ending the absolute exclusion of immigrants from Asia, but still retained tight controls on the numbers of arrivals allowed per year. President Truman actually vetoed the McCarran-Walter Act and argued for more liberalized provisions that would effectively end the restrictive quota system in the existing National Origins framework, but Congress overrode his veto and the 1952 Act was implemented. Later, President Eisenhower largely embraced Truman's positions and also attempted to liberalize the U.S.'s immigration laws, without success. However, by the time President Kennedy entered office in 1961, the stage was set for meaningful change. President Kennedy (and later President Johnson) had a global vision that embraced the interdependence of countries and the benefits of liberalizing the U.S.'s immigration policies. The U.S. was in the midst of the Cold War at the time and Kennedy saw this as an opportunity to use immigration policy as a **psychological tool** against communism. That is, he wanted to demonstrate to the world that American ideals of freedom, democracy, and capitalism were superior to that offered by communist states such as the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies, China, Cuba, and other authoritarian states.

He surmised that if the U.S. opened up its borders more to allow more immigration, people would "vote with their feet" and overwhelmingly choose to come and live in the U.S. These new immigration policies would be combined with President Johnson's "Great Society" anti-poverty and civil rights legislation and would thereby prove that the U.S. was indeed the "**land of opportunity**" -- the superior country in terms of opportunities for freedom and prosperity, as opposed to the totalitarian oppression of communist countries.

1965 immigration and Nationality act abolished the national origins system set up in the Immigration Act of 1924 and modified by the Immigration Act of 1952. While seeming to maintain the principle of numerical restriction, it so increased the categories of persons who could enter "without numerical limitation" as to make its putative numerical caps—170,000 annually for the Eastern Hemisphere with a maximum of 20,000 per nation plus 120,000 annually for the Western Hemisphere with no national limitations—virtually meaningless within a few years. Its expansion and modification of the existing preference systems is shown in the Sidebar. The Hart-Celler Act (immigration and nationality act) of 1965: 1)Established the basic structure of today's immigration law. 2)Abolished the national origins quota system (originally established in 1921 and most recently modified in 1952), while attempting to keep immigration to a manageable level. Family reunification became the cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy. 3)Allocated 170,000 visas to countries in the Eastern Hemisphere and 120,000 to countries in the Western Hemisphere. This increased the annual ceiling on immigrants from 150,000 to 290,000. Each Eastern-Hemisphere country was allowed an allotment of 20,000 visas, while in the Western Hemisphere there was no per-country limit. This was the first time any numerical limitation had been placed on immigration from the Western Hemisphere. Non-quota immigrants and immediate relatives (i.e., spouses, minor children, and parents of U.S. citizens over the age of 21) were not to be counted as part of either the hemispheric or country ceiling. 4)For the first time, gave higher preference to the relatives of American citizens and permanent resident aliens than to applicants with special job skills.
 * Details**

The preference system for visa admissions detailed in the law (modified in 1990) was as follows 1.Unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. 2.Spouses and children and unmarried sons and daughters of permanent resident aliens. 3.Members of the professions and scientists and artists of exceptional ability. 4.Married children of U.S. citizens. 5.Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens over age twenty-one. 6.Skilled and unskilled workers in occupations for which there is insufficient labor supply. 7.Refugees given conditional entry or adjustment chiefly people from Communist countries and the Middle East. 8.Applicants not entitled to preceding preferences i.e., everyone else.


 * Major Amendments in the Act**
 * Abolished the national origins quota system, eliminating national origin, race, or ancestry as a basis for immigration to the United States.
 * Established a preference system for relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and for persons with special occupational skills, abilities, or training
 * Established two categories of immigrants not subject to numerical restrictions: immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and special immigrants
 * Maintained the quota restriction, expanding limits to world coverage by limiting Eastern Hemisphere immigration and placing a ceiling on Western Hemisphere immigration for the first time. However, neither the preference categories nor the 20,000 per-country limit were applied to the Western Hemisphere.
 * Introduced a prerequisite for the issuance of a visa that an alien worker will not replace a worker in the United States nor adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed individuals in the U.S.

This momentum eventually led to the passage of the **1965 Immigration & Nationality Act**. The Act abolished the restrictive national origins system originally passed in 1924 in favor of a quota and preference system. Priority was now given to "**family reunification**" so that U.S. citizens and permanent residents could sponsor the following types of immigrants in this order of preference: This cyclical process of Asian immigration produced significant and unanticipated increases in the Asian American population beginning in the late 1960s. The table on the right uses data from the 2004 Statistical Abstract of the U.S. and provides descriptive statistics on the number of immigrants admitted to the U.S. by continent and selected countries of birth from 1971 to 2002 (the last year in which full statistics are available). As the results show, since 1971, out of the 18 million or so immigrants around the world admitted to the U.S., about 7.3 million of them were born in Asia, with the most coming from the Philippines, followed by China (which includes numbers from Taiwan from 1971-1990), then Viet Nam and India. Overall, immigrants born in Mexico account the largest national group, with over five million coming to the U.S. since 1971. These unprecedented numbers of immigrants from Asia have led to many demographic, economic, and cultural shifts in the Asian American community and mainstream American society in general. Once mainly composed of the U.S.-born, virtually all Asian American ethnic groups are now predominantly foreign-born due to the influx of so many immigrants as a result of the 1965 Act. Among other consequences, their presence has contributed to the revitalization (as well as the new development) of many Asian enclaves in several major metropolitan areas in the U.S. Many urban areas in places such as New York, Los Angeles/Orange County, and other existing or emerging immigrant gateway areas that were either in economic decline or largely undeveloped have been transformed into thriving ethnic enclaves. Asian immigrant owners and workers who came to the U.S. since the late 1960s have contributed to the proliferation of ethnic businesses, enclave economies, and residential communities. In addition, many children of these post-1965 Asian immigrants have attained remarkable educational and professional successes as well.
 * Long term results of the Act**
 * A Demographic Revolution**
 * 1) Unmarried children under 21 years of age of U.S. citizens
 * 2) Spouses and unmarried children of permanent residents
 * 3) Professionals, scientists, and artists "of exceptional ability"
 * 4) Married children over 21 years of age and their spouses and children of U.S. citizens
 * 5) Siblings and their spouses and children of U.S. citizens
 * 6) Workers in occupations with labor shortages
 * 7) Political refugees
 * The Opportunity and the immigrant**s

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