Viral Posts Misinform on McCarran-Walter Act

Quick Take

The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act codified immigration policies. It doesn’t bar “Muslims from holding public office,” as social media posts erroneously claim.

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When the Trump administration announced its controversial travel ban in January 2017, suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries, it cited a provision enshrined in U.S. law six decades earlier.

Specifically, the executive order cited a, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, which  the president power to “suspend” or “impose…restrictions” on the entry of all or certain immigrants, if he finds that such entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”