In The Land We Live In – Marcus Graham (1935)

From ‘Man!: A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement’, Nov.-Dec. 1935, San Francisco, edited by Marcus Graham

The Labor Department, under the guidance of the “gracious liberal” Miss Francis Perkins, has dropped its deportation proceedings against the mother of eight native born children. Some of Mrs. [Stella] Petrosky’s children had participated last March in a School strike, and the immigration agents of Miss Perkins seized the mother on charges of wanting “to shoot at the (?) Government…”

The case was too raw, or rather too dirty, in its concoction that public opinion should let it go through unprotested. Thanks to the efforts of the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born, sufficient protests were raised throughout the country to cause Miss Perkins in ordering the dismissal of the deportation proceedings.

But, who is to repay for the arrest and anguish, suffering and insults that the agents of Miss Perkins had brought to a Mrs. Stella Petrosky and her close relatives?

And what about the scores of close to one hundred similar deportation proceedings that are now pending in various parts of the country, brought on by the same agencies of Miss Francis Perkins? Every one of these deportation cases are, in the final analysis, just as unjust and crimeful as the one put forward against Stella Petrosky.

If one were to go into the details of every pending deportation case nothing else could be found except charges that the accused have at one time or another participated in the struggle for more freedom and justice. This is the sole crime for which the agents of a supposedly “new deal” and “liberal” administration has been hounding every labor circle in order to rid this glorious land of unbridled exploitation and crooked political ruler-ship, of those who have come to realize the truth of these facts, and are attempting to impart them to others.

Deportation as such, whether to a fascist-ruled country or not, is unjust, willful, and an insult to every one who holds ideas of Justice and Freedom as above those of ruthless exploitation and rulership. If the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born can arouse all the liberal, radical and militant organizations of the country into a rallying defense of every deportation case now pending, the “gracious” lady of the Labor Department would be forced to dismiss the proceedings in each such case as it has in the one of Stella Petrosky

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Resolution unanimously adopted by delegates assembled at conference against deportation and persecution of the foreign born, Sunday, October 27th, at 2 P.M., at Irving Plaza, Irving Place and 15th Street, New York City.

We 339 delegates representing 221 organizations urge that the traditional right of asylum in America for political and religious refugees from tyrannical governments be preserved.

We protest most vigorously the threatened deportation of Otto Richter, Alfred Miller, Erich Becker, Fred Werrmann, Carl Ohm, and other anti-nazi refugees to Germany; of Emil Gardos to Hungary, of Dan Agalos to Greece, of Stella Petrosky and Sol Goldband to Poland, of Vincent Ferrero and Dominick Sallitto to Italy, of Oscar Mannisto to Finland. All of these and many others, innocent of any crime, face deportation, imprisonment or death in fascist countries for holding beliefs or belonging to organizations which are legal in the United States. We request their unconditional release.

We protest the increasing use of the deportation laws as weapons of the employers in breaking strikes, as in the cases of the San Francisco General Strike of 1934 and the recent struggles of the coal miners in Gallup, New Mexico, where foreign born workers, some of them defense witnesses, were deported; and where savage sentences of labor leaders on trumped up murder charges went hand in hand.

We protest the breaking up of families by deportation and harsh immigration restrictions and the exclusion of immigrants from immigration and from citizenship because of race, nationality, political opinion or refusal to take an oath to bear arms.

We favor the repeal of the present deportation laws and the discontinuance of all deportation cases arising out of activities for the improvement of the conditions of the working people.

We demand full economic, social and political equality for the foreign-born in the United States.

We are convinced that deportation of foreign born workers and persecution of minorities does not solve the economic problems from which the multitude of the people suffer but rather stands in the way of the solution of these problems.

Copies of this resolution be sent to Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Miss Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, to Samuel Dickstein, Chairman of House Committee on Immigration, to Senators, Congressmen and to the Press.

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The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (100 Fifth Avenue, New York City) initiated the call of the above Conference. The call for that Conference was already set up for the October issue, but the lateness of our going to press made it useless to print it.

The same Conference adopted another important resolution which reads, as follows:

Be it resolved that this conference go on record to pledge its utmost moral and financial support through the organizations we represent in continuing the fight against all the evils directed against the foreign born through deportation and other forms of persecution.

We pledge to defend those individuals victimized in this manner regardless of race, color, creed or political opinions, and offer co-operation to other organizations engaged in defending such individuals.

We further pledge to enlist the co-operation and support of all organizations and liberty loving people in this great cause to uphold the traditional right of asylum and freedom for which this great country was founded.