Immigration Act of 1918
Pub. L.65–221 | |
Statutes at Large | 40 Stat. 1012 |
---|---|
Legislative history | |
|
The United States Immigration Act of 1918 (ch. 186, 40 Stat. 1012) was enacted on October 16, 1918.[1] It is also known as the Dillingham-Hardwick Act.[2] It was intended to correct what President Woodrow Wilson's administration considered to be deficiencies in previous laws, in order to enable the government to deport undesirable aliens, specifically anarchists, communists, labor organizers, and similar activists.
Background
During
Working together, officials at the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration drafted legislation designed to remedy the defects in current legislation. They defined anarchism broadly enough to cover all forms of activity related to its advocacy, including membership in or affiliation with any organization or group that advocated opposition to all forms of organized government.[3] The new legislation removed the protection in prior law that aliens (persons without citizenship) who had resided in the United States for more than 5 years were not subject to deportation.[3] The bill quickly was passed by the House of Representatives. While waiting for Senate action, representatives of the two sponsoring government agencies held meetings to develop a strategy for handling the "disposition of cases of alien anarchists, some of whom are Italian anarchists and others Industrial Workers of the World and Russian Union workers, now pending."[3]
Senator William Borah of Idaho was one of the few opposed, but he was not prepared to try to prevent a vote. The Senate passed a bill that included additional punishment for anyone deported who returned to the United States. The punishment for that was a prison term of 5 years, followed by deportation once again.[3]
Definition of anarchist
The act expanded and elaborated the brief definition found in the Anarchist Exclusion Act 15 years earlier to read:[3]
- (a) aliens who are anarchists;
- (b) aliens who advise, advocate, or teach, or who are members of, or affiliated with, any organization, society, or group, that advises, advocates, or teaches opposition to all organized government;
- (c) aliens who believe in, advise, advocate, or teach, or who are members of, or affiliated with, any organization, association, society, or group, that believes in, advises, advocates, or teaches:
- (1) the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law, or
- (2) the duty, necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers, either of specific individuals or of officers generally, of the Government of the United States or of any other organized government, because of his or their official character, or
- (3) the unlawful damage, injury, or destruction of property, or
- (4) sabotage;
- (d) aliens who write, publish, or cause to be written or published, or who knowingly circulate, distribute, print, or display, or knowingly cause to be circulated, distributed, printed, or displayed, or knowingly have in their possession for the purpose of circulation, distribution, publication, or display any written or printed matter, advising, advocating, or teaching opposition to all government, or advising, advocating, or teaching:
- (1) the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law, or
- (2) the duty, necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers of the Government of the United States or of any other government, or
- (3) the unlawful damage, injury, or destruction of property, or
- (4) sabotage;
- (e) aliens who are members of, or affiliated with, any organization, association, society, or group, that writes, circulates, distributes, prints, publishes, or displays, or causes to be written, circulated, distributed, printed, published, or displayed, or that has in its possession for the purpose of circulation, distribution, publication, or display, any written or printed matter of the character in subdivision (d).
Effects
In 1919, The New York Times reported that in the fiscal year 1918, two anarchists were denied entry to the U.S., 37 were deported, and 55 were awaiting deportation.[4] The Times published an editorial that contrasted those low numbers with the degree of public disturbance across the country by activists: "It appears to be difficult to find alien anarchists. Yet those in the United States seldom practice long either silence or concealment."[4]
Among the more notorious anarchists deported under the Act were
After more than 4,000 alleged anarchists were arrested for deportation under the act, the Department of Labor released most of those arrested. Acting
See also
- Anarchist economics
- Anarchy in International Relations
- Fourteen Points
- League of Nations
- USAT Buford
- Wartime Measure Act of 1918
- Wilsonianism
Notes
- ^ The New York Times: Remsen Crawford, "New Immigrant Net: How Other Causes Have Anticipated Effect of the Dillingham Act," July 10, 1921, accessed July 13, 2010
- ISBN 978-0763783136.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-691-02604-6(1991), pp. 130-136
- ^ a b "Alien Anarchists" (newspaper). The New York Times. December 15, 1919. p. 14. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
- ^ Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919 (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 184-5, 218-22
- ^ Gage, Beverly, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror (NY: Oxford University Press, 2009)
- ^ Robert K. Murray, Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955), 206-8
- ^ Stanley Coben, A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician (NY: Columbia University Press, 1963), 233-4; Louis F. Post, The Deportations Delirium of Nineteen-Twenty: A Personal Narrative of an Historic Official Experience (NY, 1923), 243-4
- ISBN 978-1-62894-179-1.