oct 16, 1918 - Immigration Act of 1918
Description:
AKA: Dillingham-Hardwick Act.
A law 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.
During the Great War, officials at the Department of Justice were frustrated in their attempts to suppress anarchist activity by their inability to gain convictions of even self-professed anarchists under current legislation, notably the Immigration Act of 1903 (also known as the Anarchist Exclusion Act) and the Immigration Act of 1917. U.S. authorities in President Woodrow Wilson's administration determined that their best opportunity to detain and remove foreign-born anarchists, antiwar protesters and members of radical labor unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World, from the United States lay in the authority of the Department of Immigration to deport individuals under an extremely broad definition of anarchism. They could use administrative procedures that did not require due process in courts of law.
The act expanded and elaborated the brief definition found in the Anarchist Exclusion Act 15 years earlier to read:
(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).
After more than 4,000 alleged anarchists were arrested for deportation under the act, the Department of Labor released most of those arrested. Acting Secretary of Labor Louis Freeland Post was threatened with impeachment for his department's findings in favor of continued residence in the US of persons charged in deportation cases.[8] A total of 556 persons were eventually deported under the Immigration Act of 1918.[9] The exclusion of anarchist immigrants was recodified with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. By the late 20th century, the threat was believed reduced. Such provisions were largely repealed by the Immigration Act of 1990. 21st century U.S. immigration law does not explicitly mention anarchists, but still banned anarchists from becoming U.S. citizens.
Added to timeline:
US Immigration Policy
Date:
