LAW, SECURITY, AND ETHNIC PROFILING: ITALIANS IN THE UNITED STATES DURING WORLD WAR II Mary Elizabeth Basile Chopas A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Wayne E. Lee Richard H. Kohn Eric L. Muller Zaragosa Vargas Heather Williams ©2013 Mary Elizabeth Basile Chopas ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Mary Elizabeth Basile Chopas: Law, Security, and Ethnic Profiling: Italians in the United States During World War II (under the direction of Wayne E. Lee) The story of internment and other restrictions during World War II is about how the U.S. government categorized persons within the United States from belligerent nations based on citizenship and race and thereby made assumptions about their loyalty and the national security risk that they presented. This dissertation examines how agencies of the federal government interacted to create and enact various restrictions on close to 700,000 Italian aliens residing in the United States, including internment for certain individuals, and how and why those policies changed during the course of the war. Against the backdrop of wartime emergency, federal decision makers created policies of ethnic-based criteria in response to national security fears, but an analysis of the political maturity of Italian Americans and their assimilation into American society by World War II helps explain their community’s ability to avoid mass evacuation and internment. Based on the internment case files for 343 individuals, this dissertation provides the first social profile of the Italian civilian internees and explains the apparent basis for the government’s identification of certain aliens as “dangerous,” such as predilections for loyalty to Italy and Fascist beliefs, as opposed to the respectful demeanor and appreciation of American democracy characterizing potentially good citizens. Although only a fractional percent of the Italian alien population was interned, those who underwent hearings before alien enemy hearing boards did not have an opportunity to rebut charges of disloyalty. By the time the Office of the iii Attorney General corrected problems in the process so as to provide greater democratic procedure, it was too late for the hundreds of Italians already interned. Through stories of the Italian internees and the experiences of their families, this dissertation also provides insight into the lasting social and cultural effects of these policies on Italian immigrants. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The seed for this project was planted many years ago when as a little girl I used to hear my maternal grandfather, Joseph Carroccia, tell stories about life in America as an Italian immigrant. In the 1930s, he made frequent trips back and forth between Italy and the United States where he worked to raise enough money to build a home and arrange for the trans-Atlantic passage of his wife and their young children, including my mother. When World War II came, my grandparents had already been settled permanently in Farmington, Connecticut for over five years and were raising a family of five children. Since they were aliens, they were subject to night-time visits by government officials in search of contraband items. My mother retold these dreadful incidents to me on several occasions so that I might appreciate our family’s history. Many years later when researching attorney loyalty oaths in the 1950s at Harvard Law School, I fortuitously came across the alien enemy hearing board files of Erwin Griswold, who had served as chair of Boston’s board. This finding triggered memories of my own family’s stories about their wartime experiences and piqued my interest to find out more. When I moved to North Carolina in 2007 and began teaching at UNC Law School, I had the good fortune of meeting Eric Muller who generously shared with me resources relevant to Italian internment that he had come across in his scholarship on Japanese internment. He encouraged me to pursue this little researched topic and consistently offered guidance for which I am most grateful. Once in the history graduate program at UNC, I had the opportunity to turn a topic conceived from a legal perspective into a broader historical project. Under the expert supervision of Wayne Lee, I v learned historical methodology. His extensive feedback at every stage of this project challenged me to think more critically and greatly improved the final product. To Richard Kohn, I am grateful for the breadth that he brought to this project, as he led me to contextualize my topic within America’s long history of balancing the protection of national security interests with the preservation of personal liberties during wartime. Zaragosa Vargas shared his extensive knowledge of social and political history of the nineteenth and twentieth century which provided the necessary background for my topic. Heather Williams taught me the importance of narrative and encouraged me to capture the voices of the Italian aliens in this project. Many other individuals deserve recognition. I am indebted to Marian Smith, the chief of the Historical Research Branch of the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, for providing me with alien files and INS reports and for patiently explaining some very technical immigration issues to me. I am grateful for help from my friends at UNC Law School, particularly the administrative assistance of Ashley Arthur and the statistical expertise of Guangya Liu. This project benefited considerably from conversations with Alfred Brophy about issues of race and ethnicity. Thanks also to my writing group – Sara Bush, Meg Martin, and Rachel Levandoski – for reading multiple drafts and offering substantive and editorial help. Without the love and support of my family, this dissertation would not have been possible. I thank my two sweet angels who put up with Mommy’s many “vacations” to the archives and gave me the best kind of distractions. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my husband Jim who has been a partner to me in every sense, from debating issues for this project and offering insightful arguments to providing me humor to keep my spirits strong through the finish of this marathon. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES: 1880-1941 ........................................................... 27 CHAPTER 3: THE FACE OF SELECTIVE INTERNMENT AND HOW OTHER GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES AFFECTED THE ITALIAN POPULATION ......................... 72 CHAPTER 4: “I WAS GIVEN A SO-CALLED HEARING”: INCONSISTENCIES IN THE INTERNMENT PROCESS .......................................................................................... 121 The Long Reach of the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 and “Courtesy” Alien Enemy Hearings .................................................................................................................................. 137 The Hearing Boards Provide Rough Justice for Italian Enemy Aliens ................................... 154 CHAPTER 5: BOCCE BEHIND BARBED WIRE: CHECKS ON GOVERNMENT POWER IN THE CAMPS .......................................................................................................... 174 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 217 APPENDIX 1: ITALIANS APPREHENDED PER MONTH .................................................. 236 APPENDIX 2: REGIONS/TERRITORIES OF ORIGIN OF ITALIAN CIVILIAN INTERNEES ............................................................................................................................... 237 APPENDIX 3: OCCUPATIONS OF ITALIAN CIVILIAN INTERNEES .............................. 238 APPENDIX 4: TIMING OF AGO’S REMEDIAL INSTRUCTIONS ..................................... 239 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 240 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION From the founding of this country through the wars against terrorism that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks, the federal government repeatedly has identified various ethnic groups as posing a national security risk based upon constructed profiles of dangerousness. Government policies designed to remove subversive elements from the population have clashed with laws and the American tradition of civil liberties and, in some cases, have undermined or violated them. This dissertation investigates the administrative state during World War II, specifically examining how agencies of the federal government interacted in creating and enacting various restrictions, including selective internment, on Italians residing in the United States. It further tracks how and why those policies changed during the course of the war. The story of Italian internment and other restrictions reveals not only the pressures generated by wartime, the fears that influenced policy makers and those who executed policies derived from ethnic-based criteria, but also how the thorough political and cultural assimilation of Italians influenced how the government treated them. As the war progressed, the Justice Department recognized the problems of a legal policy that rested on presumptive guilt as applied to all alien enemies and made efforts