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The Immigration and Nationality Act INA.
Before 1952 a variety of different laws and statutes regulated immigration to the United States until Congress passed The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in 1952.
New York Immigration Lawyers
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 also known as the McCarran-Walter Act was changed several times since its creation. It is a stand alone body of law, but it is also included in the United States Code. It contains articles called titles which are divided into chapters, and they are divided into sections.
The INA Act has changed restrictions imposed on immigrants from certain countries and adopted preference system based on the importance of work qualifications. In general, the Immigration and Naturalization Act divided all potential immigrant into groups: refugees, family members of U.S. citizens (exempt from any quotas and generally admitted to America without any restrictions) and other immigrants who should not exceed 270,000 in a year. The Act also gave the government powers of denying entry to the U.S. to people who were engaged in subversive activities, or suspected of such activities, as well as, deporting naturalized citizens.
After 9\11 the Act has been restructured several times by executive orders in regards to suspected terrorists' deportations and admissibility which continues to be a hot topic in some scholarly circles and often receives wide media coverage.
2006 and 2007's brought several different attempts to reform U.S. immigration law but failed so far, and it remains to be seen which option will prevail once immigration reform is passed in the coming years.