The post-World War One wave of anti-immigrant laws and deportations lasted for well over a decade.

‘Deportation Menace Must be Combated’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 70. April 3, 1925.

Labor Defense Council Sounds Warning

The Labor Defense Council today issued a warning to all workers and workers’ organizations against the deportation methods of the department of labor of the United States and particularly against the deportation bill which is now before the senate after having passed the house (House Bill No. 11796).

Recently the capitalist papers carried “news” based on the boast of the department of labor that some 5,000 had been deported in the last year. News also leaked out in labor papers of the underhanded “deportation” of some transport workers from New York City. These workers had disappeared and it was only when they wrote their friends from Ellis Island that the “shanghaing” came to light.

Now however, the government intends with the aid of a carefully prepared “legal” and “democratic” deportation bill to systematically deport “undesirable” alien workers. Who are these undesirables and what is the purpose of the bill?

A Union Smashing Bill.

In calling upon the workers of New York City to attend a mass meeting of protest against the bill, to be held April 3 at Manhattan Lyceum, the New York division of the Labor Defense Council says “This bill threatens the whole working class in a manner unknown in this country. The purpose of the bill is clear. The United Mine Workers, the needle workers, and the textile workers are primarily foreign-born workers. The unskilled workers on the railroads are foreign born; many of the building workers are aliens. When depression comes, followed by wage slashes and longer hours for those who can still find jobs, the government will have a convenient weapon against the foreign-born workers, deportation.” They point out that the most active trade unionists in this country are, in great part, foreign born workers, and cite ex-representative Chandler, speaking in New York, who said “alien Reds must be told that Russia is their normal abode. American Reds must be told that Leavenworth or Atlanta is a better living place for them than New York City.” And “Reds” of course, are all workers who fight against reaction, wage cuts, longer hours, open shop, company unions, and for better conditions, strengthening of unions through amalgamation, etc.

Want Docile Slaves.

What the government and the bosses want is docile wage slaves. How do the bosses get around the immigration quota regulations when they want cheap labor in quantities in certain sections? Why, there is a convenient arrangement under which Mexican and other workers are brought into the United States under the contract system, and supposedly shipped back when the job is done.

Not so long ago the American Civil Liberties Union reported “The fear of radicalism has very largely abated as a result of the sweeping conservative victory in the campaign and there will be less interference with their propaganda.” In relation to this statement a religious weekly (!) asked “Are we to judge that the failure of their cause is the only way to insure free speech for ‘pink’ lips?”. But evidently the cause has not failed, and there will be continued interference in spite of the Civil Liberties Union’s statement. The government now aims to divide the workers, and hopes to break this resistance by centering the attack on the foreign born. So the fight must and will go on.

Dropped One Case.

Only recently the Labor Defense Council has had to take up the cases of John Schedel, Blais Kuush, Thomas Klein, E. Vajtauer, John Lassen and the three Young Workers in New York City, all of whom are involved under existing deportation laws. On direct appeal to the Secretary of Labor, deportation proceedings against Klein were abandoned, due principally to the fact that Klein has a dependant wife and seven children in this country. It is hoped that the Schedel case, where the situation is similar to that of Klein, will also be dropped. After long and unsuccessful efforts in the courts the defense was only able to get permission for Kuush to voluntarily deport himself to Russia. Kuush and his wife left New York on February 28. Vajtauer and Lassen were both active editors of Communist language dailies and it looks as though they were deliberately “selected” for deportation. Evidence against them was taken from their writings in these papers. Vajtauer is still held on Ellis Island; the Lassen case is pending.

Also recently the proceedings against A.V. Severino, active Communist in the labor movement of Cleveland were renewed. Severino is a naturalized citizen of Italian birth, but the department of justice is moving to take away his citizenship pa pers and then have him deported. Another case of “selective” deportation. Severino is too active in the labor movement. He is a “Red.” The technical (open) argument of the government seems to be: If you are a Red now you must have been when you entered the country; for Redness is a foreign disease, it doesn’t have its birth or growth here; therefore you must have misrepresented yourself when you asked for citizenship.

So not only alien workers are menaced but also naturalized workers. All of the workers of America must unite in a fight against the deportation methods and bills of the bosses, for the sake of working class strength, resistance, and solidarity.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n070-NYE-apr-03-1925-DW-LOC.pdf