1932-1976

1932 & 1936 – Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Alf Landon

• FDR and State Department essentially shut down immigration during Great Depression, therefore immigration not much of an issue because the New Deal took precedence.

1940 – Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Wendell Wilkie

• Not to provoke Congress, immigration of Jews and others from Europe was met with passivity from Roosevelt. Roosevelt tried to help the incoming refugees but State Department prevailed in blocking immigration.
• Rather, the major issue of this election was entrance into World War II.

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Thomas Dewey

• January 1944: Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board to deal with refugees of the war and Holocaust.
• Immigration of the Jews to Palestine was preferred and supported by both Dewey and Roosevelt.
• 1943: Chinese Exclusion Act repealed.
• 1946: Luce-Cellar Act ended discrimination against Indian Americans & Philippines, but the actual quota was only 100 immigrants a year.
• Immigration was low during the war.

1948 – Harry S. Truman vs. Thomas Dewey vs. Strom Thurmond

• 1945: What would happen to refugees after the war was a very important question in the election. Truman wanted to set an example by alleviating human suffering and filling immigration quotas to their maximum through his Fair Deal.
• 1952: Immigration & Nationality Act revised immigration quotas and gave most to the Ireland, the UK and Germany. This was opposed by Truman and passed despite his veto.

“I consider that common decency and the fundamental comradeship of all human beings require us to do what lies within our power to see that our established immigration quotas are used in order to reduce human suffering. I am taking the necessary steps to see that this is done as quickly as possible.” Harry S. Truman

1952 & 1956 – Dwight D. Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson

• January 1957: After reelection, Eisenhower wanted to revise immigration quotas from 1952 legislation by creating new quotas based on 1950 census, redistribute country quotas and adopt orphans from other countries.

"I again urge the liberalization of some of our restrictions upon immigration...we should double the 154,000 quota immigrants ... we should make special provisions for the absorption of many thousands of persons who are refugees." Dwight D. Eisenhower

1960 – John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon vs. Harry Byrd

• 1958: Kennedy wrote A Nation of Immigrants which cataloged the history of immigrants in America (especially that of his own roots as a Roman Catholic), then used book as a guide for forming immigration policy during presidency.
• He called for a full reevaluation of immigrant law and book included proposals for liberalizing it, a proposal in 1962 enumerated this.

"The ideal of the 'melting pot' symbolized the process of blending many strains into a single nationality, and we have come to realize in modern times that the 'melting pot' need not mean the end of particular ethnic identities or traditions," John F. Kennedy

"Immigration is by definition a gesture of faith in social mobility. It is the expression in action of a positive belief in the possibility of a better life.... The continuous immigration of the 19th and early 20th centuries was thus central to the whole American faith. It gave every old American a standard by which to judge how far he had come and every new American a realization of how far he might go. It reminded every American, old and new, that change is the essence of life, and that American society is a process, not a conclusion." John F. Kennedy

1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater

• Johnson’s Great Society would liberalize immigration laws like Kennedy and acted as an extension of Civil Rights Act, but across borders.
• The Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 (the Hart-Cellar Act) abolished the system of national-origin quotas. Before immigration quotas were based on nationality, but this act allowed immigration status to be determined without regard to race or nationality, and had a strong focus on family reunification. The signing of this bill, which was pushed through by Robert and Edward Kennedy, was a tribute to Kennedy after his death.
• Johnson and others believed this bill would have no affect on immigration. In actuality, it increased immigration dramatically (immigration in 1960 was 9.7 million and by 1990 it was 20 million).

"This bill we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not restructure the shape of our daily lives.” Lyndon B. Johnson

1968 – Richard Nixon vs. Hubert Humphrey vs. George Wallace

• Issues of Vietnam and economy took precedence over immigration issues.

1972 – Richard Nixon vs. George McGovern

• September 26, 1972: Nixon opened a museum at the Statue of Liberty dedicated to the millions of immigrants that came to America.