Hysteria Hangs On

The McCarran-Walter Act was passed in 1952 at the height of anti-communist hysteria. Among other things, it allows the government to turn away aliens on the basis of their beliefs and associations. Since then every Administration has used the law from time to time to deny a temporary visa to somebody whose views it did not like.

The current Administration has denied entry to Hortensia Allende, the widow of slain Chilean President Salvador Allende; Robert D’Aubuisson, the Salvadoran political figure; Farley Mowat, the Canadian author; Thomas Borge, the interior minister of Nicaragua; Nino Pasti, a former Italian senator and peace activist, and Olga Finley and Leonor Rodriguez Lezcano, members of the Federation of Cuban Women who the State Department says are members of the Cuban Communist Party.

After the last four people were denied temporary visas for speaking tours in 1983, suits were filed on their behalf. Last month a U.S. Court of Appeals panel in Washington ruled 2 to 1 that people could not legally be excluded from the United States solely on the basis of their political beliefs and associations. The court held that the McGovern Amendment of 1977 specifically prevented the government from barring people because they were members of the Communist Party or because their speeches here were “prejudicial to the public interest.”

None of these people posed any threat to the security of the United States, and keeping them out was just foolish. If someone intends to come here and take action to damage the country, of course he can be kept out. Otherwise, as the Court of Appeals recognized, the government should have no power to bar him. Secretary of State George P. Shultz seemed to endorse that principle at the PEN conference in New York in January, when he said, “This Administration is committed, and I am personally committed, to protecting free expression of all political ideas.” Why, then, is the State Department expected to appeal the Court of Appeals ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court? Why doesn’t the department drop it?

The best approach would be for Congress to adopt a bill sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) that would rewrite and condense the McCarran-Walter grounds under which aliens can be barred. It would retain the justifiable reasons, such as criminal background or activity that would truly endanger national security, but would remove the unjustifiable ones, such as beliefs and associations. The existing law is silly.