This is the second essay in a series highlighting the important and especially significant work of Dr. Julia Rose Kraut in Threat of Dissent.

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As established previously, U.S. politicians have a well-established history of excluding groups of people based on numerous factors, including pauperism and ideology. Lawyers defending people at risk of deportation or exclusion have tended to cite the First Amendment guarantee of free speech in their arguments for their clients’ freedom, but judges and justices have consistently ruled in favor of the government, pointing to Congress’ plenary power and nations’ inherent right to self-protection. ¹

Between World War I and World War II, the U.S. continued its campaign against outsiders, establishing denaturalization law, barring all immigration from east Asia, deporting and detaining residents from hostile nations, requiring visas, requiring literacy tests, creating immigration quotas (which favored certain countries over others); wiretaps, surveillance, mail interception, authorizing warrantless searches and arrests, and violence, often as revenge against specific individuals. By World War II, foreign nationals were treated much like criminals.

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Blame the Foreigners

The government position shifted in the wake of the Haymarket Affair. Persecution of bad actors was not enough — those who supported the ideologies behind them should also be excluded, regardless of whether such persons were actual bad actors or not. In 1906, Congress passed it’s first denaturalization law, targeting persons who obtained their citizenship “through fraud, misrepresentation, or deception.” Investigators could now set about determining whether targets — and relatives — had obtained their citizenship through legal means. ^{2, 3}

By 1917, numerous states had passed laws meant to suppress labor agitation — the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was pushing businesses to improve the working conditions and safety of workers in construction, factories, etc. President Wilson blamed foreigners within the United States and naturalized citizens for radicalism, labor strikes, industrial sabotage and so forth. Congress responded by passing new federal laws which revised specific ideological restrictions for the purpose of detaining, denaturalizing, and deporting foreign-born residents. Congress also identified the “Asiatic Barred Zone” — a region containing most Asian countries — and forbid anyone from any of those countries from entering the United States. All other foreigners were required to pass a literacy test to enter the country.

Also in 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. The ink was probably still wet when German residents were declared alien enemies. 6,300 were arrested, and 2,300 were interned. ⁴

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The Palmer Raids

After the close of WWI, labor agitation continued — and the scapegoats du jour were the Bolsheviks. After a series of raids against the IWW and other pro-socialist/pro-anarchist places were conducted, a bomb exploded at the home of Attorney General Palmer. Palmer responded by creating the General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation (precursor to the FBI), led by J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover, then only 24 years of age, spent the next six months conducting raids, mass arrests and deportations of foreigners aligned with the IWW, anarchism, and new Communist organizations — the first of which occurred on the second anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (January 1920). The Palmer Raids were a massive undertaking — conducted in 30 cities across 23 states.

Hoover also arranged for a revision to immigration laws to free officials of any requirement to present warrants of arrest, evidence, or information about access to counsel to deportees. A report critical of the Justice Department was later circulated, describing serious civil liberties violations, beatings, threats of violence, warrantless arrests and detentions, and use of evidence obtained from illegal searches and seizures. ^{5, 6}

Again, lemme know if any of this sounds familiar.

By the late 1920s, nativism came back into fashion in Washington, resulting in new immigration restrictions. Focusing this time on southern Italians and eastern European Jews, Congress adjusted the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 — already designed to favor immigration from northern and western Europe — by reducing the annual number of immigrants from a specific country of origin to 2% of the U.S. residents from the same country, and requiring foreigners to obtain visas from U.S. Consulates prior to entry into the United States. ⁷

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The Great Depression

The stock market crash in 1929 gave additional purpose to denaturalization and deportation efforts: economic relief. US consuls were now to gauge the likelihood of an immigrant to obtain employment based on current conditions (read: likeliness to become a public charge). Visa issuance plunged by 60% within a year.

Secretary of Labor William Doak projected he could expel 25% of an estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S., and began deportation drives as a means of providing jobs for Americans. He began “repatriating” Mexicans — that is, by either deporting them or coercing them to voluntarily depart under threat of deportation. Doak also authorized raids of homes and public places, detaining everyone, then sorting out who was legal and who was not. ⁸

Stop me if you’ve heard this.

Congress did continue its subversion investigations throughout the 1930s, suppressing dissent and strengthening exclusion by ideology. A special subcommittee was created in the House of Representatives to hold hearings on the “Exclusion and Expulsion of Communists”, chaired by Congressman Martin Dies (D-TX). Expert testimonies included emphasis on guilt by association as an effective ideological deportation tool; many comparisons were made to the Anarchist Exclusion Act. ^{9, 10}

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation

J. Edgar Hoover became the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. Hoover had executed the Palmer Raids in 1920 and remained on the hunt for domestic subversives — honestly or otherwise: Hoover had a lawyer representing a suspected Communist investigated with the goal of discrediting her prior to the suspect’s hearing. Hoover became infamous for keeping lists of suspects and their associations, including evidence obtained through surveillance, wiretaps, informants, mail interception, and secret warrantless searches. He kept these files secret from even the Justice Department after being told they were illegal by the Attorney General. ¹¹

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The House Un-American Activities Committee

Congress created the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1938. As Chairman, Dies went after the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, for not deporting a specific individual (accused of being a Communist) just as Congress had Acting Secretary of Labor Post twenty years before (for not deporting a specific individual accused of being an anarchist). In both instances, the officials used their best judgment and interpretation of the law; but Congress wanted their pound of flesh. Both were found to have acted appropriately.

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Preparations for World War II

IN 1940, President Roosevelt architected a reorganization which placed the Immigration and Naturalization Service under the Department of Justice. The move out from under the Department of Labor codified the perception of immigrants as criminals and threats as the U.S. kept a weather-eye on hostilities abroad, preparing for the possibility of war.

That year, Congress passed the Alien Registration Act, purposefully designed to remove barriers to ideological deportation. The act addressed advocating for the overthrow of any U.S. government in nearly any form — including membership in any such group dedicated to the same at any point, meaning former members of, say, youth Nazi groups were still considered Fascists according to U.S. law. It also required foreign non-citizens, 14 years of age and older, to be fingerprinted in addition to registering at a U.S. Post office, AND to confirm their continued residence every three months. Registration provided the FBI with a wealth of information it could use to pursue and deport foreign nationals with considerable ease. ¹²

When the U.S. entered the war, Italians, Germans, and Japanese non-citizens were declared enemy aliens. In early 1942, the Secretary of War was authorized to reserve space on military installations for interning such individuals. 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were relocated to these internment camps. ¹³

Legal counsel for people under threat of deportation continued to argue for the observance of the Bill of Rights in immigration matters, and Judges and justices continued to chip away at the plenary power argument. ¹⁴, ¹⁵

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1. Kraut, J. R. (2023). Threat of dissent: A History of Ideological Exclusion and Deportation in the United States. Harvard University Press ↩︎
2. Kraut 2023, 59. ↩︎
3. File:Pamphlet Haymarket affair 001da original.jpg – Wikimedia Commons. (1886). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pamphlet_Haymarket_affair_001da_original.jpg ↩︎
4. Kraut 2023, 63-69. ↩︎
5. Kraut 2023, 70-77. ↩︎
6. Wikipedia contributors. (2026c, January 24). Palmer Raids. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids ↩︎
7. Kraut 2023, 87-89. ↩︎
8. Kraut 2023, 90-92. ↩︎
9. Farrell, T. (2026e, February 3). The U.S.’ long history of exclusion. On Current Events. Retrieved February 5, 2026, from https://currentevents.blog/2026/02/02/u-s-history-of-exclusion/
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10. Kraut 2023, 99-101. ↩︎
11. Kraut 2023, 106-107. ↩︎
12. Kraut 2023, 108-109. ↩︎
13. Kraut 2023, 110. ↩︎
14. Kraut 2023, 114-116 ↩︎
15. Farrell 2026e ↩︎