After the end of the First World War the United States experienced a period of dislocation as the country lurched back toward peace. Wartime fears that immigrants may be disloyal to the nation took on a new form when Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and the Bolsheviks gained power in Russia in October 1917. A series of major strikes and instances of terrorism in the United States convinced many Americans that radicals might use violence to overthrow their government as well.
In what became known as the Palmer Raids, during the winter of 1919-1920 Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer led a campaign to rid the country of aliens who held radical beliefs. On the second anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Bureau of Investigation agents arrested hundreds of members of a small anarchist group, the Union of Russian Workers. Then, on January 2, 1920, a larger set of raids against the newly formed Communist and Communist Labor Parties led to thousands more arrests. With the overwhelming support of the American public, Palmer planned to deport the alleged Reds in a quest to save American democratic values.
However, Palmer's opponents criticized the government's conduct during the raids. They complained that government agents arrested immigrants without warrants and conducted illegal searches. They argued that the government set aliens' bail at exorbitantly high rates to prevent them from gaining their freedom before the government could deport them. Ultimately, in the spring of 1920 Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis Freeland Post prevented the mass deportations by cancelling the warrants of over two thousand immigrants. |
