Immigration—Almost Four Hundred Years of American History - Depression And War

Changes at the Immigration and Naturalization Service

Immigration dropped well below 100,000 arrivals per year during the Great Depression of the 1930s, since America offered no escape from the unemployment that was rampant throughout most of the world. However, in the latter half of the 1930s Nazi persecution caused a new round of immigrants to flee Europe. In 1940 the INS was transferred from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice. This move reflected the growing fear of war, making surveillance of aliens a question of national security rather than a question of how many to admit. The job of the INS shifted from the exclusion of aliens to combating alien criminal and subversive elements. This required closer cooperation with the U.S. attorney general's office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Alien Registration

World War II began with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Growing concern about an increase in refugees that might result from the war in Europe led Congress to pass the Alien Registration Act of 1940 (54 Stat. 670), also known as the Smith Act. Among other provisions, this act required all aliens to register and those over fourteen years old to be fingerprinted. All registration and fingerprinting took place at local post offices between August 27 and December 26, 1940. During that four-month period, five million aliens registered, nearly 4% of the total U.S. population of 132 million people. Each alien was identified by an alien registration number, known as an A-number. For the first time the government had a means of identifying an individual immigrant. (The A-number system is still in use today.) Following registration each alien received by mail an Alien Registration Receipt Card, which they were required to carry with them to prove they were registered. Each alien was required to report any change of address within five days. Managing such a vast number of registrants and documents in a short time created a monumental challenge for the INS. The ranks of employees in the Alien Registration Division of the INS swelled from 55 in August 1940 to a peak of 985 in July 1941 ("This Month in Immigration History: June 1940," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, http://uscis.gov/graphics/aboutus/history/6june40.htm).

The United States officially entered World War II on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt immediately proclaimed all "nationals and subjects" of nations with which the country was at war to be enemy aliens. Various intelligence and military services quickly rounded up and detained some two thousand people. On January 14, 1942, the president issued a proclamation requiring further registration of aliens from enemy nations (primarily Germany, Italy, and Japan). All such aliens age fourteen and over were directed to apply for a Certification of Identification during the month of February 1942.

Alien registrations were used by a variety of government agencies and private industry to locate possible enemy subversives, such as aliens working for defense contractors, aliens with radio operator licenses, and aliens trained to pilot aircraft. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, one out of every twenty workers in American industry at that time was a noncitizen ("This Month in Immigration History: June 1940").

Japanese Internment

On the recommendation of military advisors, the president issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, which authorized the forcible internment of people of Japanese ancestry. Lieutenant General J. L. DeWitt was placed in charge of removal of the Japanese to internment camps. In a June 5, 1943, letter to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, which accompanied his Final Report; Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942, DeWitt summed up the fears that drove the Japanese removal. "The continued presence of a large, unassimilated, tightly knit and racial group, bound to an enemy nation by strong ties of race, culture, custom and religion along a frontier vulnerable to attack constituted a menace which had to be dealt with. Their loyalties were unknown and time was of the essence." DeWitt's report revealed that over a period of less than ninety days, 110,442 persons of Japanese ancestry were evacuated from the West Coast. More than two-thirds were U.S. citizens. Relocation began in April 1942 and the last camp was vacated in March 1946.

Executive Order 9066 was never formally terminated after the war ended. Over the years many Japanese-Americans expressed concern that it could be implemented again. On February 19, 1976, President Gerald Ford issued a proclamation officially terminating the provisions of Executive Order 9066 retroactive to December 31, 1946. President Ford said, "We now know what we should have known then—not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home, Japanese-Americans … have been and continue to be written in our history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and security of this, our common Nation."