The Contemporary Legal Immigration System: Visa Preferences and Barriers Flashcards
(5 cards)
The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 was vetoed by President Truman. Why did pro-immigration leaders oppose it?
McCarran-Walter Act reaffirmed a strict national origins quota system with a low ceiling on annual admissions and reserving 70% of visas for Northern and Western Europeans, Created new ideological grounds for exclusion or deportation, including the right to revoke visas and legal permanent residency from noncitizens deemed “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the U.S, allows for exclusion of homosexuals or “sexual deviants”
What compromises did the Johnson administration make with restrictionists in Congress in order to enact the Immigration and National Act of 1965? Why was this immigration law considered transformative? How was it both expansive and restrictive?
Openings: Abolished the national origins quota system, raises immigration ceiling new legal preference system
Restrictions: capped immigration from western hemisphere, family emphasis benefited European applicants over others
The third great wave of U.S. immigration led to calls for restrictions on overall immigration and limits on family-based immigration. What did the Immigration Act of 1990 actually do and why?
- Raises the number of visas from 500K to 700K plus no ceiling on immediate relatives
- expands both family-based and employment-based visas
- Maintains humanitarian visas for refugees/asylees
- Creates 55,000 annual ”diversity visas” for countries from which few are emigrating under other
cateogries - Removes 1952 bars on ”homosexuals” and removes
AIDS from illnesses making immigrants ineligible to
enter.
Can you describe the origins and development of the “Diversity” visa category?
Irish American politicians sponsor special visas for Irish to counter discrimination against Irish migrants
Immigrants from which countries receive the most U.S. green cards today?
Mexico and Indian
