Anarchist Exclusion Act

The Anarchist Exclusion Act refers to two different acts passed by the United States Congress intended to keep immigrants that subscribed to anarchist ideas from entering the country.

The 1901 act

The first Anarchist Exclusion Act (officially listed as "An Act To regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States", ch. 1012, USStat|32|1222) [cite book
last=Van Dyne
first=Frederick
authorlink=Frederick Van Dyne
title=Citizenship of the United States
publisher=Wm. S. Hein Publishing
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2XWHKuYL-MUC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=who+disbelieves+in+or+is+opposed+to+all&source=web&ots=6aSQZLs7y7&sig=MOoJ62bfyr9WRjzbSBanVx4-B6U
year=1904/1980
page=93
doi=
isbn=0837712297 ] was passed by the 57th United States Congress, on its last day of session, March 3, 1903 (and re-enacted June 29, 1906), [cite book
last=Greeley
first=Horace
authorlink=Horace Greeley
title=The Tribune Almanac and Political Register
publisher=The Tribune Association
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=n4w3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=who+disbelieves+in+or+is+opposed+to+all&source=web&ots=so7lfGe1I_&sig=sAQ51cowzlVVmfVM-0gcw0SBLpA
year=1909
page=131
doi=
isbn=] soon after the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz, who, paradoxically, was not an immigrant, but the American-born son of Polish immigrants. Then-president Theodore Roosevelt requested the legislation from Congress, which was the first legislation in the U.S. since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 that permitted those attempting to enter the country to be questioned about their political beliefs. [cite book
last=Vowell
first=Sarah
authorlink=Sarah Vowell
title=Assassination Vacation
publisher=Simon and Schuster
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XdJid7UW9PEC&pg=PA220&lpg=PA220&dq=%22anarchist+exclusion+act%22&source=web&ots=DK-PuD26Tm&sig=GGXQ_vEr-FtTs7yz98FL7WP6y00
year=1999
page=220
doi=
isbn=074326004X ] The act specifically barred anyone quote|"who disbelieves in or who is opposed to all organized government, or who is a member of or affiliated with any organization entertaining or teaching such disbelief in or opposition to all organized government."cite news
title=In Defense of Anarchy
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D04E4D71039E333A25756C0A9649D946297D6CF
format=newspaper
work=New York Times
publisher=The New York Times
location=New York, New York
id=
page=8
date=December 5, 1903
accessdate=2007-07-12
language=English
archiveurl=
archivedate= ] Immediately following a speech given by a Scottish anarchist named John Turner at the Murray Hill Lyceum, Immigration officials arrested Turner, and found a copy of Johann Most's "Free Society", and Turner's speaking schedule, which included a memorial to the Haymarket Martyrs. This was enough evidence to deport him. Immediately following, Emma Goldman organized a Free Speech League to contest the deportation. She recruited Clarence Darrow and Edgar Lee Masters to defend him.cite book
last=Chalberg
first=John
authorlink=John Chalberg
title=Emma Goldman: American Individualist
publisher=Harper Collins
year=1991
page=85-86
doi=
isbn=0673521028 ] After Goldman organized a meeting at Cooper Union of those opposing the deportation, the New York Times editorialized in favor of the act, and deportation of Turner. They referred to the people at the meeting as "ignorant and half-crazy dreamers" and declared that it was the country's "right - in the belief of Congress and of many, probably of most, Americans', it makes it our duty - to exclude him."

Darrow and Masters presented their defense of Turner before the U.S. Supreme Court. They argued that the law was unconstitutional and that Turner was merely a "philosophical anarchist", and therefore not a threat to the government. The Court ruled against Turner, with Chief Justice Melville Fuller writing the majority opinion. Fuller held that the Bill of Rights did not apply to aliens, and that Congress had the right to deny entry to anyone they deemed a threat to the country. Turner became the first person deported under the act.

The following year, of 7,994 people denied entry into the U.S., one was denied for being an anarchist. [cite book
last=Farnsworth Hall
first=Prescott
authorlink=
title=Immigration and its effects upon the United States
publisher=H. Holt
series = American Public Problems
year=1906
page=240 ]

The 1918 act

The second act (also known as the Immigration Act of October 16, 1918, ch. 186, USStat|40|1012) was enacted on October 16, 1918.cite news
title=New Immigrant Net: How Other Causes Have Anticipated Effect of the Dillingham Act
author=Remsen Crawford
url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9900E5DE173EEE3ABC4852DFB166838A639EDE
format=newspaper
work=New York Times
publisher=The New York Times
location=New York, New York
id=
page=
date=July 10, 1921
accessdate=2007-07-12
language=English
archiveurl=
archivedate= ] It specified quote|"that aliens who are anarchists; aliens who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law; aliens who disbelieve in or are opposed to all organized government; aliens who advocate or teach the assassination of public officials; aliens who advocate or teach the unlawful destruction of property; aliens who are members of or affiliated with any organization that entertains a belief in, teaches, or advocates the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law, or that entertains or teaches disbelief or oppostion to all organized government, or that advocates 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 any other organized government, because of his or their character, or that advocates or teaches the unlawful destruction of property, shall be excluded from admission into the United States"

In 1919, the New York Times reported that in the fiscal year 1918, two people were "excluded from the United States"... and "(t)hirty-seven 'were deported after being found illegally in this country.'"cite news
title=Alien Anarchists
url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C05EFD9123BEE32A25756C1A9649D946896D6CF
format=newspaper
work=New York Times
publisher=The New York Times
location=New York, New York
id=
page=14
date=December 15, 1919
accessdate=2007-07-12
language=English
archiveurl=
archivedate= ]

Among the more notorious of the anarchists deported under the act were Luigi Galleani and several of his adherents; the "Galleanists" were responsible for a deadly bombing campaign that had reached new heights in 1919 and 1920. [Avrich, Paul, "The Anarchist Background", Princeton University Press (1996)] Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, both resident aliens, were also deported pursuant to the Act.

After more than four thousand alleged Communists were arrested for deportation under the act, the Department of Labor refused to deport the bulk of those arrested; Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson was threatened with impeachment over the refusal. [ [http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/dpt.htm U.S. Department of Labor - History - Departmental Timeline ] ] A total of 556 persons were eventually deported under the 1918 Anarchist Act. It was repealed in 1952.

ee also

*Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)
*1919 United States anarchist bombings
*First Red Scare
*Palmer Raids

References