Palmer raids deport 556 radicals during the first Red Scare

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, working with J. Edgar Hoover's General Intelligence Division, launched coordinated raids on November 7, 1919 and January 2, 1920, arresting up to 10,000 suspected anarchists and communists across 36 cities. The Justice Department deported 556 foreign nationals, including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, aboard a ship the press dubbed the "Soviet Ark," invoking the Immigration Act of 1918 to remove noncitizens for political beliefs. Acting Secretary of Labor Louis Post reversed more than 70 percent of deportation warrants, exposing the raids' lack of legal foundation. The episode established a precedent that immigration law could be weaponized against political dissidents lacking citizenship.