Daniel W. MacCormack

Daniel MacCormack served as the first Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. Born in Wick, Scotland in 1880, MacCormack immigrated to the United States at age 9. In 1894 he derived citizenship when his father naturalized in Boston, Massachusetts. He served with the American forces during the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902) and from 1905 to 1917 acted as an executive for the Panama Canal Organization. During the First World War he served as a Captain. MacCormack traveled to Persia as government director of Internal Revenue in 1922. While there he directed relief efforts during a famine and in 1927 represented Persia in the League of Nations. He returned to New York in 1928 to enter the field of banking. MacCormack left the presidency of the Fiduciary Trust Company of New York to become Commissioner of Immigration in 1933.

As Commissioner he implemented the 1933 reorganization that recombined the then separate Immigration and Naturalization Bureaus into the consolidated Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), becoming the first Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. During his tenure, MacCormack endeavored to “humanize” the Service by investigating the treatment of noncitizens in INS custody and worked to make the naturalization process more uniform and fair with the introduction of a Citizenship Program that set clear standards for naturalization testing. MacCormack also worked to professionalize his newly unified workforce by initiating a series of lectures designed to provide INS employees with a greater knowledge of the agency’s mission and to enhance their ability to aid and serve both immigrants and the American public. MacCormack died while in office on January 1, 1937 at the age 57.

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