The Foreign Service Journal, June 2019

34 JUNE 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Migration and Immigration Policy From the FSJ Archive MILLIONS ON THE MOVE FOCUS The Stupendous Visa Task American Consular Bulletin , January 1921 Consul Harry A. McBride, back from an inspection trip to Europe, tells how con- suls are regulating, by visas, the stream of immigration now setting toward the United States. … Mr. McBride says that probably never in the history of Consular Service has such a tremendous task been placed upon the shoulders of our officers, as the work of the alien visa control. This work requires most of the time of the majority of our officers in Europe today. “Up to the present,” McBride continues, “Naples has been the office handling the greatest number of visas, but Warsaw is now going ahead. …There is a wide balcony around [the building housing the visa office] and in the front portion four office rooms. The applicants, sometimes to the number of 2,000 in one day, line up on the balcony. They then pass through the offices. In the first office there are ten desks, where the applications are made out with the assistance of consulate clerks. … “From very careful estimates prepared by each consular offi- cers, it is found that 202,493 visas have been granted in Europe during the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1920; that 257,178 will be granted during the quarter ending March 31, 1921; and 297,484 during the quarter ending June 30, 1921, or the large total, for the present fiscal year, of 931,549 visas in Europe. To this must be added the following estimated figures: Africa 9,000; Asia 25,000; Mexico 100,000; West Indies 17,000; Australia 9,000; Canada 2,000; South America 12,000; Central America 8,000; a total of 182,000 in non-European countries, making a grand total of 1,113,549 visas for the present fiscal year. This means a revenue of some $11,000,000! The rate of increase per quarter is also a figure which should be punctuated with an exclamation point. “In addition to the visaing [sic] of all foreign passports there is another branch of this work which requires considerable time and attention on the part of the consular officers. This is the visaing of crew lists. All vessels bound from foreign countries for ports of the United States and its insular posses- sions or the Canal Zone, must present a list of all alien members of the crew to the consulate abroad before sailing. These names must be checked and the list visaed [six] if found to contain no suspected aliens. “The work of visa control would be about all that the Service could handle if it ran smoothly, but recently the path has been found to contain treach- erous windings and dangerous pitfalls. The number of passport frauds, forged visas and the like, that have to be combatted, is considerable—especially in Eastern Europe.” National Origins Quota System at Issue Foreign Service Journal, December 1955 On June 27, 1952, a well-known bill became law when the Congress passes Public Law 414 over the veto of President Tru- man. The Act [known as the Immigration and Nationality Act and the McCarran-Walter Act], which became effective on Dec. 24, 1952, can now be evaluated more accurately than was possible three years ago. The purpose of codifying and integrating all immigration and nationality laws within the framework of one statute was accom- plished. The purpose of revoking obsolete laws was achieved. The purposes of removing racial bars to naturalization and immigra- tion and of elimination of discrimination between sexes with respect to immigration have been fulfilled. With these major accomplishments listed on the credit side one may well ask what more can be expected from one piece of legislation. And it is on this point alone—expectation—that the answer depends. Defenders of the law point to these accomplishments and improvements, and state that the favorable results obtained exceed their original expectations. They concede that minor amendments are desirable to eliminate injustice and discrimina- tion in certain individual cases, but they insist that the national origins quota system established in 1924 be perpetuated as a necessary foundation for American immigration policy. Critics, however, claim that the expectations, as well as the hopes and