Alien Registration Act

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Smith Act , even after Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia as Smith Act referred was on 29 June 1940 by Congress passed in American federal law .

Aspect of immigration law

With this law, for the first time foreigners who were older than 14 years at the time of their entry were obliged to register with the federal government and to deposit fingerprints . The only exception was members of foreign governments and their families. After registration, every immigrant received the Alien Registration Receipt Card , which is considered to be the forerunner of today's green card . Carrying this card became compulsory for all foreigners aged 18 and over living in the USA. The foreigners could be prosecuted and expelled for organizing the illegal entry of other immigrants, smuggling or for membership in a prohibited organization .

Domestic aspect

The Alien Registration Act has also been used to crack down on local opposition groups, especially communist ones . However, right-wing critics of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the political spectrum felt the effects more strongly at first, since the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) was a political ally of Roosevelt in World War II .

In this context, Howard Zinn criticized it as a continuation of the 1917 Espionage Act . The Smith Act extends this further to the effect that statements with destructive intent are now also made a criminal offense in peacetime. The wording is:

It shall be unlawful for any person to [...] advocate [...] [the] propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force and violence

"It is unlawful for any human being to advocate the overthrow of any United States government."

Penalty for violation

Violation of the Alien Registration Act could result in a fine or imprisonment . It was also possible to lose one's job through a blacklisting system . In addition, a deportation could be carried out. Leading politicians from the Trotskyist left such as James P. Cannon and then from the US Communist Party such as Eugene Dennis and Gus Hall were sentenced to prison terms on the basis of this law.

Court judgments on the constitutionality of the law

On June 4, 1951, following a complaint by Eugene Dennis , the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that the law was constitutional, as there was a difference between an abstract, constitutionally protected, advocacy of an alternative form of government and aggressive action against the American state was seen.

In 1957, the same court ruled that the law was not constitutional because the above difference was not considered to be decisive.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Marion Kofler: Freedom rights in the USA with Googlebooks
  2. ↑ Michelle Malkin: In Defense of Internment at Googlebooks (English)
  3. ↑ History of the development of the Green Card ( Memento from August 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Pastora San Juan Cafferty: The Dilemma of American Immigration at Googlebooks (English)
  5. ↑ Homeland security INS cannot locate many aliens because it lacks reliable at Googlebooks (English)
  6. ^ Report on the history of immigration to the USA at spiegelonline
  7. ↑ DIANE Publishing Company: Immigration and Nationality Act (1995) at Googlebooks (English)
  8. ^ Table of contents of the Alien Registration Act for an exhibition in the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte
  9. ↑ Margaret A. Blanchard: Revolutionary Sparks at Googlebooks (English)
  10. ^ Report on the life of Gus Hall on the ICFI's World Socialist Web Site
  11. ^ Cornelia Wilhelm: Movement or Association? at Googlebooks
  12. ↑ Report on the Alien Registration Act at spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk (English)
  13. ↑ a b Gert-Joachim Glaeßner: Security in freedom with Google books