The fear of foreigners

Why were the Arab men jailed?

The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks were carried out by Arabs who had entered the country because of immigration loopholes and the lax enforcement of laws. “Sept. 11 awakened the country,” said the Justice Department’s general counsel, Kris Kobach. “Weak immigration enforcement presents a huge vulnerability that terrorists can exploit.” In an attempt to identify possible terrorists still in the U.S., the Bush administration began rounding up Arab men known to be living in the country illegally. More than 750 men from Middle Eastern nations were taken into custody. They were held in jail for months on the basis of lapsed visas or unanswered deportation orders.

Were any of them terrorists?

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Apparently, no. More than 500 of the men were deported. The rest were released. Nonetheless, a recent report by the Justice Department’s inspector general said the men were treated in prison with scorn and suspicion, as if they were, in fact, terrorists. Some were even beaten. But aides to Attorney General John Ashcroft said they “make no apologies” for doing everything in their power to prevent another terror attack. Still, the Justice Department has agreed to develop clearer standards for detaining people. In post–Sept. 11 America, finding the balance between security and rights remains the focus of a vigorous debate.

Is this a new debate?

It’s as old as the nation. The United States is a country of immigrants, but our history has been marked by waves of suspicion directed at the newly arrived—especially in times of war. “It is often said that civil liberties are the first casualty of war,” said rights activist and legal scholar David Cole. “It would be more accurate to say that noncitizens’ liberties are the first to go.” In fact, the country was still in its infancy when Congress passed one of the most blatant curbs on constitutional freedoms—the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

What did those laws say?

The acts provided the government with sweeping powers to detain or deport any alien considered dangerous to the nation’s welfare. They also imposed fines and imprisonment on anyone found guilty of writing, publishing, or merely uttering anything of “a false, scandalous, and malicious” nature about the government. The rationale for this crackdown was a looming conflict with France over control of the high seas. French refugees, once welcomed, were seen as potential spies.

How were the laws used?

While ostensibly aimed at a foreign threat, the laws became a partisan tool wielded by John Adams’ Federalist government against the rival Republicans, who opposed a war against France. Fifteen editors were tried and convicted for publishing criticism of the government, and thousands of citizens were arrested or harassed. The leader of the Republicans, Thomas Jefferson, wrote that the acts were a test to see how far Americans “will bear the violation of the Constitution.” Jefferson was elected president in 1800, and the Alien and Sedition Acts soon expired.

What was the next big test?

The Civil War. The issue then was not foreigners, but Southerners and Southern sympathizers infiltrating the North. In 1861, President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus—the time-honored guarantee that anyone accused of a crime must be brought before a judge. People accused of treason were simply jailed and tried before secret military tribunals. Like presidents before and after him, Lincoln said it was necessary to abrogate certain basic rights in order to protect all Americans. “Must a government,” Lincoln asked, “be too weak to maintain its own existence?” By the time the war ended in 1865, thousands were languishing in prisons, many guilty of nothing more than “disloyal sentiments and speeches.” The Supreme Court in 1866 ruled his actions unconstitutional and freedoms were restored.

Was that the end of the debate?

Hardly. Many Americans opposed the nation’s entry into World War I, which they viewed as an internal fight among European nations. After declaring war on Germany, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to mobilize public opinion behind the war effort. Historians say the committee helped create a sort of “war madness” in which all dissent was suppressed. “There were continual spy scares, witch hunts, and even kangaroo courts that imposed harsh sentences of actual tar and feathering,” said historian Jay Winik. But during the next war, the government went even further.

What happened?

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the expulsion of “all persons” of Japanese ancestry—70 percent of whom were U.S. citizens—from their West Coast homes. More than 110,000 Japanese were shipped to “relocation centers,” where they were herded into camps rimmed by barbed wire and patrolled by armed guards. “Hardships are a part of war,” the Supreme Court stated in a ruling—later repudiated—that allowed the internments to continue. What’s often forgotten, though, is that the Japanese were not the only immigrants viewed as possible enemy agents during World War II.

What other groups were affected?

Thousands of Germans living in America were detained in camps in Texas and North Dakota, or forced to leave their homes in “exclusion zones” and resettle elsewhere. Italian immigrants also fell under suspicion, since Italy entered the war on the side of Germany. Thousands of Italians who’d lived in the U.S. for years without becoming citizens were detained, stripped of their property, or placed under curfew. Some Italian-Americans now call this chapter in U.S. history “una storia segreta,” which means “a secret history.” “What happened to the Italians was based on wartime hysteria,” said Joanne Chiedi, a former Justice Department official who has studied the era. “The story needs to be told,” she said, “so it won’t happen again.”

The Palmer Raids

Smithsonian Magazine.