American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born

The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (1933-1982), based in New York City, was founded for the purpose of defending the rights of the foreign born, especially radicals and Communist Party members, thereby filling a void left by other civil rights defense groups. The Committee's formation was initiated by Roger Baldwin of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Committee pursued its aims through litigation, legislation and public education. In its early years, the Committee's activity focused of campaigning for asylum rights for those refugees who had fled European fascism in the 1930s and were facing deportation. Although no legislative changes were won at this time, ACPFB victories for individuals set precedents and aroused public support. Toward the end of the decade, the ACPFB formed a group to protect those who had gone to Spain to fight against Franco and who had entered or re-entered the United States illegally. With the outbreak of World War II, the Committee's attentions turned toward promoting national unity against fascism. The ACPFB also aided Japanese Americans who were being forcibly removed and incarcerated by the U.S. government, though removal and incarceration themselves were not opposed. The major individual defense case during the war years was that of CPUSA leader William Schneiderman, whose naturalization was cancelled due to his membership in the Young Workers' League and the Workers' Party. The ACPFB won a reversal of the cancellation in 1943. The Committee also defended the Australian-born labor leader, Harry Bridges, against deportation starting in 1940. At the end of the war in 1945, the Committee began to work to abolish racial discrimination in immigration policy, and to reform immigration law, with special consideration for foreign born individuals who had served in the armed forces or in the merchant marine. It also worked to strengthen progressive currents among the foreign born that had been weakened by postwar anti-Communist propaganda.

The advent of the Cold War saw increased efforts to deport foreign born trade unionists and Communists, and attacks on the ACPFB itself. In June of 1948, Attorney General Tom C. Clark added the ACPFB to his department's list of "subversive" organizations. With the passage of the McCarran Internal Security Act in 1950 and the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act of 1952, the Committee's activity became increasingly geared toward the defense of Communist Party members. In 1950, Attorney General Brownell applied to the Subversive Activities Control Board (established under the McCarran Act) to require the ACPFB to register as a Communist Party front organization. In 1951, the Committee's executive secretary, Abner Green, was imprisoned for six months for his refusal to submit the names of the Committee's contributors to a Federal grand jury in New York. The death of Carol King, the Committee's general counsel, after ten years of service to the ACPFB, made the Committee's work more difficult. In 1955, Abner Green was ordered to appear before the New York State Supreme Court on the ground that the Committee was violating the law that applied to charitable organizations. The court proceedings ran for two years at the end of which the New York State Supreme Court secured an ex parte injunction restraining the Committee from all activities including receiving and spending money. The injunction was lifted later that month, but the Committee continued to be enjoined from public solicitation of funds.

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