Immigrant surveillance

Immigrant surveillance refers to the practice of tracking both illegal and legal immigrants through several methods, some of which include electronic verification, border surveillance, or federal raids. Historically, countries such as the United States have required that immigrants carry evidence of citizenship. Controversies within immigrant surveillance in the United States involve the alleged racial profiling committed by police departments and negligence found in detention centers. Laws concerning surveillance and immigration vary by country but terrorist attacks have made the issue more prevalent.

Immigrant surveillance has been a prevalent issue throughout United States history. Historians argue that policies involving immigration surveillance are a product of nativism and can be evidenced throughout United States history. The Alien and Sedition Acts of the 1790s is one of the earliest cases of immigration surveillance, allowing the president to act on their own discretion in regards to whether or not non-citizens were dangerous to the country because of their nationality. Congress passed its first exclusionary immigration law with the Page Act of 1875, which prohibited entry to immigrants from Asia that were thought of as undesirable, such as prostitutes and convicts. In 1893, a United States Supreme Court case involving a similar issue, Fong Yue Ting v. United States, ruled that the federal government had the right to arrest and deport non-citizens if they failed to carry certification verifying their lawful residency even if there was no other crimes committed.

After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 by Leon Czologosz, the son of Polish immigrants, the United States acted to exclude the entry of anarchists or those who had violet opposition to the United States government.

During World War I, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1918 which ordered the deportation of immigrants that held anarchist beliefs in the United States. During the war, anti-German sentiments began increasing in the United States. The Department of Justice began placing German nationals in internment camps as a result of the war. The number of German nationals arrested during 1918 rose to 6,300. Those who were not placed in internment camps were required to register and were ordered not to leave the country.

The government began to take increasing actions against potentially dangerous immigrants during World War II. This was the result of the Pearl Harbor attack by Japanese forces. The Smith Act was enacted in 1940 and dealt with the deportation for various offenses and added registration requirements, including the fingerprinting of immigrants before being issued a visa. In addition to the Smith Act, the federal government ordered the internment of over 100,000 people of Japanese descent, many of which were immigrants. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which established legislation that authorized the payment of $20,000 to each surviving Japanese American that was affected by internment.

J. Edgar Hoover also ordered for the detention of Italian and German immigrants during this time because of their connections to the war. Four days before the United States declared war on Italy, government agencies began detaining German nationals and detained them in facilities for processing before their eventual internment. President Roosevelt signed Proclamation No. 2527, which categorized illegal Italian immigrants as "alien enemies." Though Proclamation No. 2527 only categorized illegal Italian Americans as enemies, Italians with American citizenship were also targeted for arrests. Under Proclamation No. 2526, German nationals and German Americans were also arrested and detained.

After World War II, surveillance against alleged communists and foreign nationals became widespread. The McCarthyism Era began around 1947 and ended in the late 1950s. With the rise of the McCarthyism Era in the United States, anyone who had ideals that contrasted that of the United States, such as communists, would be questioned. This resulted in the deportation of approximately 850 non-citizens to Europe. This also led to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 which introduced an ideological criteria. Immigrants and visitors of the United States were denied entry on the basis of political ideology, this was used to limit communism. Though the curbing of communism was the end goal of McCarthyism, many anarchists were also not widely accepted.

After the September 11 attacks, the United States increased its surveilling of citizens and non-citizens in order to prevent terrorism. After the attacks, the United States focused on issuing various forms of counter-terrorism, from internet surveillance to increased border surveillance. The United States government alongside some states, increased efforts to regulate immigration from the interior of the border. The proposals that have been drafted and passed by lawmakers expect individuals to demonstrate their lawful presence in the United States. With the passing of the Patriot Act, the possibility of indefinite detentions for immigrants became possible. The Patriot Act was enacted seven weeks after the September 11 attacks and allowed for the deportation of immigrants that were suspected of terrorist activity. Under the Patriot Act, immigrants that were considered threats to national security could also be indefinitely detained without the possibility of bond. Detention would also become indefinite if the immigrant's country did not want to receive the immigrant in question. As a result of this, multiple civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) began to file lawsuits against federal districts to declare the detention of multiple Muslim men unconstitutional.