Conclusion of Chapter 17

Prison
The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was the new intelligence agency formed during WWII. An agent spent three weeks undercover on Ellis Island and reported that the place was a security risk. He saw the island as “an important transmission center” for intelligence (page 352). Hoover was angry at the reports of lax security and bad behavior by guards and officials.

One of the strangest cases Cannato describes is that of William Gerald Bishop, arrested in 1940, supposedly for being involved in a terrorist plot. Although his trial ended in a hung jury, and the government later dismissed charges against him, Bishop was detained in 1942 as an enemy alien. His claim of U.S. citizenship was challenged. Bishop was an open supporter of Germany’s Nazi government.

Some of those detained, such as the opera singer Ezio Pinza, were not avowed fascist sympathizers or anti-American. Pinza was caught in Hoover’s web because he was Italian, and because individuals had made allegations about his political sympathies. When accusations such as those against Pinza, are based on hearsay, with no hard evidence backing them up, are the accused person’s rights being safeguarded? To what extent is it acceptable, in time of war, to punish someone without hard evidence?

Although Pinza’s story ultimately had a good outcome, Cannato points out that his story “was just one of thousands.” (page 356) Some of the people held were U.S. citizens, as in the case of the Neupert family.

Most of the detainees were taken to internment camps around the country. The end of the war did not bring an end to the detainees’ ordeal. President Truman issued a proclamation ordering enemy aliens to be deported.

As the government closed the internment camps, the detainees were sent back to New York to wait for the disposition of their cases. Hundreds of detainees awaited the outcome of their petitions. They did not want to be sent back to postwar Germany. Many would be sent to the part of that country under Soviet occupation.

In 1947 more than 200 were still being held at Ellis Island, in conditions that were described as “cramped, dirty and stultifying.” (page 358) The appeals dragged on until August 1948. Some detainees were returned to Germany, some agreed to be deported to other countries, such as Argentina. Only one person remained on the island after this, a former U.S. army sergeant arrested on charges of being a German spy.

By now America had entered the Cold War, and Germans were now allies instead of enemies. The new enemies were the Soviet Union and Communism.

A New War
In 1950 the U.S. was at war in Korea. That same year Congress passed the Internal Security Act in 1950, which “would force Communists and other subversives in the United States to register with the federal government.” (page 360)

The new law also allowed the government to exclude any person who belonged to an organization that advocated “any form of totalitarianism.” President Truman vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto.

Truman retaliated by ordering his Attorney General to strictly enforce the law. By following the letter of the law, the web of justice caught up many who had been forced, sometimes as young children, to join Fascist youth organizations. Truman’s move embarrassed Congress, which then clarified the law, excluding those who had been younger than 16 when they joined, or been forced to join, or who had joined for compelling reasons such as to receive food rations.

The War Bride
Ellen Knauff spent 27 months, from August 1948 to November 1951, in detention at Ellis Island. In Germany she had married a naturalized U.S. citizen and veteran who remained in Germany working for the occupation government while she traveled to the U.S. She was detained upon arrival because three Czech nationals had accused her of passing information to the Czech government when she worked for the U.S. army. She was not given the details of the charges against her because they were “classified to protect confidential intelligence sources.” (page 364)

Ellen, who was Jewish and had lost many family members in the Holocaust, called Ellis Island “a concentration camp with steam heat and running water.”

Her case reached the Supreme Court, which decided 4 to 3 against her petition. The prevailing opinion was based on the plenary power doctrine, which gave the executive branch of the government a great deal of latitude when dealing with aliens. (page 365)

Cannato describes Knauff’s case in detail, because it is an example of the inherent conflict between individual rights and the government’s right to withhold information and deny open hearings to an accused person when national security or secrecy is an issue. She did not give up her appeals and was ultimately admitted to the United States.

“Ellen Knauff’s case had gained nationwide publicity. But her case also brought attention to the fact that individuals could be detained and deported without benefit of an official hearing and without any knowledge of the evidence against them.” (page 369)

The Man Without a Country
Ignatz Mezei was not as fortunate as Ellen Knauff. His case did not win public sympathy. Like Knauff, his case reached the Supreme Court, which decided against Mezei, declaring that his detention was constitutional. One of the dissenting justices said that the powers given to the Attorney General in cases such as Mezei’s “were more likely found in totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.” (page 373)

The Attorney General eventually released Mezei, although he had belonged to a Communist organization in Hungary.

Closed
Ellis Island’s role as a prison for aliens was criticized as being inconsistent with the laws and practices of a free and democratic country. A New York Times article stated, “Unlike the totalitarians and despots, we Americans abhor imprisonment by administrative fiat.” (page 375)

In 1954 a new policy freed most detained aliens on bond while their cases were being decided. In a cost-saving measure, six detention facilities, including Ellis Island, would be closed.