Decades of discrimination: national crisis has often ushered in massive suspensions of civil rights.

There is a pattern here, immigrants have been unjustifiably and illegally targeted by the U.S. government in response to national crises across the decades. Exploring the similarities between three events--the Palmer Raids, Japanese internment, and the current "war on terrorism"--reveals how responses to a national crisis can often precipitate massive suspensions of civil rights. Historians have consistently critiqued both the Palmer Raids and Japanese internment as unwaranted, anti-immigrant, racist, and illegal. But how closely is the "war on terrorism" following the patterns of the past?

On June 2, 1919, a series of bombs exploded across eight American cities. In response to the bombings, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer ordered a massive roundup and detention of all suspected "alien reds." Thinking chat members of anarchist, communist, and socialist groups were responsible for the bombings, Palmer authorized the massive roundup of Russian and Eastern European immigrants. Without being charged with any crime, thousands were detained, held in secret, denied bail, and denied access to lawyers. Although not one person was connected to the June 2 bombings, hundreds were eventually deported without trials.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. In response co the attack, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the military to begin interning Japanese American citizens and immigrants. Without being charged with any crime, 120,000 Japanese Americans were removed from their homes and placed in makeshift internment camps for the duration of World War II. No Japanese American was ever convicted of espionage or aiding the Japanese government during World War II.

In response to the attack on September 11, 2001, the U.S. government quickly broadened the powers of the Department of Justice and began detaining and questioning thousands of immigrants from Arab or Muslim countries. Today, Attorney General John Ashcroft is calling for expanding powers of the PATRIOT Act in order to fight the "war on terrorism." Already Ashcroft's discriminatory policies have unjustly impacted hundreds of thousands of immigrants and people of color.

 
PALMER RAIDS OF 1919                 JAPANESE INTERNMENT 
 
GOVERNMENT POLICY USED               GOVERNMENT POLICY USED 
 
* Sedition Act (1918)                * Immigration and Nationality Act 
                                       (1940) 
* Deportation Act (1918) 
                                     * Alien Registration Act (1940) 
* Espionage Act (1917) 
                                     NEW POLICIES PROPOSED & ENACTED 
NEW POLICIES PROPOSED & ENACTED 
                                     * Attorney General Biddle 
* Davey Bill: Called for the           authorized raids without a 
  immediate deportation of any         search warrant on the homes of 
  alien convicted of actions or        people of Japanese descent. 
  speech against the U.S. 
  government and for the             * Executive Order 9066 broadly 
  denaturalization of any              extended powers of military to 
  naturalized citizen convicted of     round up and detain "any and all 
  sedition.                            persons" from designated areas 
                                       of the country as necessary for 
* Over 52 bills targeting              national security. 
  political radicals proposed by 
  U.S. Legislators. 
 
GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ACTIONS         GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ACTIONS 
 
* Police/FBI raids on suspected      * FBI rounded up and detained 
  "alien reds."                        "selected" Japanese aliens. 
 
* More than 10,000 arrested          * Over 120,000 persons of Japanese 
  without being charged with any       descent interned without being 
  crime. Government kept names of      charged with any crime. 
  detainees secret amd expedited 
  the deportation process. Palmer    * Alien Enemy Identification 
  called for increased deportation     Program monitored suspected 
  of "red."                            populations of Japanese, German, 
                                       and Italian immigrants. Any 
* Palmer claimed over 300,000          alien who failed to register 
  "alien reds" existed in U.S. and     with the government could be 
  must be questioned by U.S.           imprisoned. 
  intelligence and security 
  officials. 
 
TREATMENT OF DETAINEES               TREATMENT OF DETAINEES 
 
(Palmer Raid detainees) were held    Inside the camp, we had the sense 
in unconscionable conditions,        that America was outside the 
interrogated incommunicado, and in   fence, and America was a dangerous 
some cases tortured.                 place. Sometimes people say, 'It 
                                     wasn't that bad.' But it was that 
--David Cole, professor,             bad. It was something that bad.' 
Georgetown University                But it was 1942 nobody did 
                                     anything about it. We were out 
                                     there on our own. 
 
                                     --John Tateishi director, 
        ...