Summary
This act gave the executive branch greater powers to enforce immigration restrictions during World War I. People entering or departing the United States in violation of laws were considered criminals and were subject to deportation and fines. Every U.S. citizen was required to bear a passport if they planned to depart or enter the United States. This law reflects heightening anxieties and fears about the spread of radicalism from Europe associated with immigrants.
Source
CHAP. 186.-An Act To exclude and expel from the United States aliens who are members of the anarchistic and similar classes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That aliens who are anarchists; aliens who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law . . . or that advocates or teaches the unlawful destruction of property shall be excluded from admission into the United States . . . .
SEC. 2. That any alien who, at any time after entering the United States, is found to have been at the time of entry, or to have become thereafter, a member of any one of the classes of aliens enumerated in section one of this Act, shall, upon the warrant of the Secretary of Labor, be taken into custody and deported . . . .
SEC. 3. That any alien who shall, after he has been excluded and deported or arrested and deported in pursuance of the provisions of this Act, thereafter return to or enter the United States or attempt to return to or to enter the United States shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of not more than five years: and shall, upon the termination of such imprisonment, be taken into custody, upon the warrant of the Secretary of Labor, and deported . . . .
Approved, October 16, 1918.
