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Palmer Raids

During the first Red Scare after World War I, the U.S. government conducted a series of raids to capture and deport foreign-born radicals. Named after Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, the Palmer Raids of 1919 and 1920 led to the arrest of approximately 5,000 immigrants, many of whom came from either southern or eastern Europe. When planning the raids, the Department of Justice targeted members of organizations that it deemed subversive, such as the Union of Russian Workers, the Communist Party, and the Communist Labor Party. Although the raids resulted in relatively few deportations, they disrupted immigrant community life and were a significant episode in the history of American nativism.

Causes

As the U.S. government mobilized the population during the World War I, officials emphasized the importance of 100 percent Americanism. Many Americans feared that immigrants might undermine the war effort and needed to demonstrate their loyalty to the nation. After Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia during the 1917 October Revolution, U.S. government officials feared that a communist revolution could take place in the United States. They were especially concerned that immigrants from the former Russian Empire may have brought foreign ideas about anarchism, socialism, and communism with them from their homeland.

After the war ended, the United States experienced a period of labor unrest that began with the Seattle General Strike in January 1919 and included major strikes in the coal and steel industries. In April 1919, radicals tried to send bombs to prominent Americans through the mail, and in July bombs exploded in several cities. One destroyed the front porch of Palmer's home, where investigators found radical leaflets in Italian as well as the remains of the bomber at the scene.

The incidents convinced many Americans that the government needed to root out foreign-born radicals to prevent a violent revolution. Palmer believed that if left alone, subversive immigrants would destroy American democracy, undermine religious belief, and threaten the well-being of American families.

Raids and Deportations

The Immigration Act of 1918 enabled the government to deport immigrant anarchists and those who supported the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Since the act also permitted the government to deport members of any organization that supported violent revolution, the Department of Justice decided to focus on proving that immigrants belonged to organizations that it considered dangerous. J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the Bureau of Investigation's Radical Division, coordinated the government's efforts. In November 1919, on the second anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, the Department of Justice raided branches of the Union of Russian Workers, a radical organization that also served as a mutual aid society, and arrested hundreds of alleged radicals.

After the first set of raids, antiradicals eagerly awaited the beginning of the deportations. Newspaper reporters emphasized the threat of radical beliefs to American society as they followed the cases of notorious radicals, including anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, longtime collorators. Berkman had spent 14 years in prison for the shooting of Henry Clay Frick, and both Goldman and Berkman had served prison sentences for opposing the draft during World War I. The government began its experiment with mass deportation by shipping 249 immigrants including Berkman and Goldman, aboard the U.S.S. Buford to Hangö, Finland, so they could cross the border into Soviet Russia. The Department of Justice hoped that more deportations would soon follow.

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