Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade provided a … unique defense of Donald Trump’s call for Anti-Muslim laws.
“… this is not new. When the communist threat was the number one threat, we did have an Alien and Sedition Act that dated back to 1798, when we were worried about going to war with France. We wanted to make sure people here weren't against us. In the 1950s, the McClaren Act -- the McCarran Act, I should say, addressed the red scare here.”
The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798. Three of the four acts expired or were repealed within three years, and the acts—which included a widespread writ to throw immigrants out of the country and limit not just protests but political disagreement—are widely marked out as some of the most restrictive legislation ever passed in the United States.
Likewise, the McCarran Internal Security Act, substantial parts of which have since been ruled unconstitutional, was a direct assault on free speech that President Truman called “the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press, and assembly since the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798." Truman vetoed the bill. A red-scare driven Congress overrode the veto.
Over the intervening decades, both these laws have developed a dark reputation. They limited public protest. They restricted speech. They allowed action not just against immigrants, but citizens who had beliefs the executive viewed as “dangerous.”
And the truth is that Kilmeade is largely right: What Donald Trump has proposed is very, very like the Alien and Sedition Acts and the McCarran “Subversive Activities Control Act.”
Which should worry everyone.
Alien Friends Act of 1798
This act allowed the President at any time to order any aliens he deemed dangerous to be deported. This included suspicion of treason or spying. If the alien stayed in the country, they could be imprisoned for three years, and never be allowed to become a citizen of the USA.
Donald Trump's 8/15/2016
… we will pursue aggressive criminal or immigration charges against anyone who lends material support to terrorism. … Immigration officers will also have their powers restored—they’ve been taken away. Those who are guests in our country that are preaching hate will be asked to return home. And if they won’t go, we’ll send them home.
The Sedition Act of 1798
To write, print, utter or publish, or cause it to be done, or assist in it, any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame, or bring either into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against either the hatred of the people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or to excite unlawful combinations against the government, or to resist it, or to aid or encourage hostile designs of foreign nations.
Donald Trump 2/26/2016
“I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected.”
Under the Sedition Act, at least 14 people were tried and convicted of crimes such as insulting the president. Among those sentenced was a US congressman who spent four months in jail for the crime of being critical of John Adams.
Naturalization Act of 1798
… applicants for citizenship to have declared intention to becoming a citizen five years prior to application, and lived in the United States 14 years when the application was admitted. This act was to be implemented on all new aliens providing they were no longer subjects of any nation the U.S. was at war with at the time of application.
Donald Trump
Trump made clear Sunday he supports voter ID laws and other restrictive rules. And, going further even than most other Republicans, he has falsely claimed there’s an epidemic of illegal voting, including by the undocumented immigrants he wants to deport en masse.
Restrictive voter ID laws and the Naturalization Acts nearly tripled length of time for citizenship are meant to do exactly the same thing: Block the vote for groups who don’t support the party that passed the law.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798
That whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.
Donald Trump 8/15/2016
As soon as I take office, I will ask the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to identify a list of regions where adequate screening cannot take place. We will stop processing visas from those areas until such time as it is deemed safe to resume based on new circumstances or new procedures.
And here’s the terrible truth about this one … it’s still in effect. While the rest of the Alien and Sedition Acts were reversed by the next Congress (this was before Marbury v. Madison, so there was no clear idea of judicial review) the Alien Enemies Act remains on the books. Worse still, the act has been variously interpreted, and was the source for the authority Franklin Roosevelt claimed to imprison Japanese Americans.
This is certainly the piece of legislation Donald Trump would lean on to impose his Muslim ban, using the argument that the current scope of activities allows a broad definition of the nations with which we’re at war. Based on how the court has applied other laws, this would probably pass muster.
McCarran Act of 1952
The McCarran-Walter Act moved away from excluding immigrants based simply upon country of origin. Instead it focused upon denying immigrants who were unlawful, immoral, diseased in any way, politically radical etc. and accepting those who were willing and able to assimilate into the US economic, social, and political structures, which restructured how immigration law was handled. Furthermore, the most notable exclusions were anyone even remotely associated with communism which in the early days of the Cold War was seen as a serious threat to US democracy. The main objective of this was to block any spread of communism from outside post WWII countries…
Donald Trump 8/15/2016
In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes towards our country or its principles – or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law.
Those who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred, will not be admitted for immigration into the country.
In vetoing the McCarran Act, President Truman expressed his disgust at the anti-immigrant, and specifically anti-refugee, attitude of the bill.
Today, we are "protecting" ourselves as we were in 1924, against being flooded by immigrants from Eastern Europe. This is fantastic. ... We do not need to be protected against immigrants from these countries–on the contrary we want to stretch out a helping hand, to save those who have managed to flee into Western Europe, to succor those who are brave enough to escape from barbarism, to welcome and restore them against the day when their countries will, as we hope, be free again....These are only a few examples of the absurdity, the cruelty of carrying over into this year of 1952 the isolationist limitations of our 1924 law.
The same could be said of those trying to place barriers to immigration specifically targeted against Syrian refugees and others fleeing the chaos in the Middle East.
It’s no coincidence that Donald Trump repeatedly cited the Cold War in his speech. It’s no coincidence that Kilmeade mentioned the McCarran Act in his analysis of Trump’s speech. Trump is quite deliberately reaching back to those points in our history when we were most afraid of outsiders.
And he’s trying to repeat every error. Only worse.