What to know about the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
Again and again the Trump White House has turned to a 73-year-old legal statute to defend its immigration crackdown.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to explain the arrest and planned deportation of a Palestinian activist and legal U.S. resident with a green card.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cited it when announcing that anyone living in the U.S. illegally would have to register with the federal government.
The act has been mentioned in presidential orders, press releases and speeches.
But what is it?
Why do officials keep talking about the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952?
The act comes up so frequently because it is the legal foundation of modern immigration law, encompassing a vast range of regulations and procedures. It has been amended hundreds of times since it was passed, during the Truman administration.
Decades of sweeping changes in immigration law link back to the act.
맥스카지노These were all massive public laws in their own standing, but they were all amending맥스카지노 the 1952 legislation, said Niels Frenzen, an immigration expert at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
The law, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, came amid the anti-communist fears of the early Cold War. While it eased some race-based immigration restrictions, particularly for Asians, it effectively limited most immigration to Europeans. It also codified rules allowing ideology to be used to deny immigration and allow deportation.
How has the Trump administration used the act and its many provisions?
Most recently, the Trump White House used the act as the basis to arrest Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests at Columbia University against the Israel-Hamas war. Khalil, a Palestinian who was born and raised in Syria, became a legal permanent resident, also known as a green card holder, last year. He is married to an American citizen.
But the administration says he still can be expelled.
맥스카지노Under the Immigration and Nationality Act the secretary of state has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests맥스카지노 of the U.S., Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
The reality is more complicated, legal scholars say. The provision the White House is using맥스카지노Section 237 (a)(4)(C)맥스카지노is rarely invoked, requires extensive judicial review and is intended for unusual cases when someone맥스카지노s presence in the U.S. could cause diplomatic turmoil.
맥스카지노The deportation has to have some seriousness to it,맥스카지노 said Richard Boswell, a University of California San Francisco law professor whose work often focuses on immigration. 맥스카지노The burden is on the government맥스카지노 to show the person should be deported.
Scholars often point back to the Clinton administration for a recent, high-profile example.
Mario Ruiz Massieu was a former deputy attorney general in Mexico when he was arrested in 1995 for trying to leave the U.S. with $26,000 in undeclared cash. Then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that not deporting Ruiz-Massieu 맥스카지노would jeopardize our ability to work with Mexico on law enforcement matters.맥스카지노
When else has the act been invoked?
-Under Section 212(f) , the president may block entry of 맥스카지노any aliens or class of aliens into the United States맥스카지노 whose presence would be 맥스카지노detrimental to the interests of the United States.맥스카지노 Donald Trump used that broad language to impose a travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries during his first term and, on the first day of his second term, laid groundwork for a renewed travel ban. His advisers are expected to make recommendations later this month.
-In late February, Noem said in a statement she would 맥스카지노fully enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act,맥스카지노 and would require anyone living in the U.S. illegally to register with the federal government, with those who don맥스카지노t facing fines, imprisonment or both.
- Joe Biden used the act's humanitarian parole provision more than any president to allow temporarily allow people into the U.S. from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Specifically, it allows the president to admit anyone 맥스카지노on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.맥스카지노 The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit for ending the long-standing legal tool.