Deportation Bid Based on McCarthy-Era Law

The McCarran-Walter Act, under which the federal government seeks to deport six people suspected of being members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was passed by Congress in 1952 at the height of the McCarthy era, despite President Harry S. Truman’s veto.

Among other things, the act permits the exclusion of aliens from the United States if they write, publish or distribute material advocating the doctrines of world communism or engage in activities that threaten the national security.

At the time it became law, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) was stirring up a national wave of anti-communist sentiment. Ideological danger was seen in numerous segments of government, the entertainment world and education.

The act was the result of more than three years study by committees in both houses of Congress and bore the names of its co-authors, Sen. Pat McCarran (D-Nev.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Francis E. Walter (D-Pa.), chairman of the immigration subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee.

Truman said: “Seldom has a bill exhibited the distrust evidenced here for citizens and aliens alike.”

Nevertheless, both the Senate and House overrode his veto.

Used to Deny Visas

For years, opponents have complained that the law has been used to deny visas to important writers and other notable figures simply because of their political views.

Author William Styron testified at a 1984 congressional hearing on a proposed bill to repeal communist ideology as a reason for excluding foreign visitors that the 1952 act has been used to deny visas to such writers as Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italian playwright Dario Fo and novelists Doris Lessing and Graham Greene.

The act has also been used to deny visas to Irish novelist Iris Murdoch, Italian novelist Alberto Moravia and Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, as well as actors Yves Montand and Simone Signoret.

“The list . . . the quality of the list is staggering,” Styron said, declaring that many prominent literary figures are barred solely because their “political beliefs or associations are unpopular with certain people in Washington.”

The Reagan Administration opposed the 1984 bill by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) that would have shifted the focus of the McCarran-Walter Act from considering ideology and association to actual threats to national security.

A State Department official said then that the government does not deny visas “solely on ideological grounds.”