Immigration Act of 1918

Enactment

During World War I, officials at the Department of Justice were frustrated in the attempts to suppress anarchist activity by their inability to convict even self-professed anarchists under current legislation, notably the Immigration Act of 1903 and the Immigration Act of 1917. U.S. authorities in the Wilson 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, this time using administrative procedures that did not require due process.

Working together, officials at the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration drafted legislation designed to remedy the defects in current legislation by defining anarchism broadly enough to cover all forms activity related to its advocacy, including membership in or affiliation with any organization or group that advocated opposition to all forms of organized government. The new legislation removed the provision in prior law that aliens who had resided in the United States for more than 5 years were not subject to deportation. The bill passed the House of Representatives quickly. While waiting for the Senate, representatives of the two sponsoring government departments 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."

Senator Borah of Idaho was one of the few opposed, but he was not prepared to try to prevent a vote. When the bill passed, it 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.

Definition of anarchist

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: (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: (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).

Impact

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. The Times offered an editorial comment contrasting those low numbers with the degree of public disturbance the country was experiencing: "It appears to be difficult to find alien anarchists. Yet those in the United States seldom practice long either silence or concealment."

Among the more notorious anarchists deported under the Act were Luigi Galleani and several of his adherents. Galleani's followers, known as Galleanists, were responsible for a bombing campaign that would last from 1914 until 1932, culminating in the deadly bombing campaigns of 1919 and 1920. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, both resident aliens, were also deported pursuant to the Act.

After more than four thousand alleged anarchists were arrested for deportation under the act, the Department of Labor released the bulk of those arrested. Acting Secretary of Labor Louis Freeland Post was threatened with impeachment for his findings in favor of those charged in deportation cases. A total of 556 persons were eventually deported under the Immigration Act of 1918. The exclusion of anarchist immigrants was recodified with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and largely repealed with the Immigration Act of 1990.