[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1473-E1474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       WARTIME VIOLATION OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. RICK LAZIO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 1, 1999

  Mr. LAZIO. Mr. Speaker, late in the night of December 7, 1941, only 
hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Filippo Molinari heard 
noises outside his San Jose home. When Molinari went to investigate, he 
found three policemen at his front door. They told him that by order of 
President Roosevelt, he must come with them.
  Molinari had served in the Italian army during World War I, fighting 
alongside American troops. He was well-known within his community as a 
door-to-door salesman for the Italian language newspaper L'Italia. He 
was the founding member of the San Francisco Sons of Italy. And now, he 
was under arrest. Shortly thereafter, Molinari would be shipped to a 
government detention center in Fort Missoula, Montana.
  Filippo Molinari's story is not unique. He was one of hundreds of 
Italian Americans arrested in the first days of the war and sent to 
internment centers or excluded from California. In 1942 over ten 
thousand Italian Americans across the nation were forcibly evacuated 
from their homes and relocated away from coastal areas and military 
bases. Additionally, some 600,000 Italian nationals, most of whom had 
lived in the United States for decades, were deemed ``enemy aliens'' 
and subject to strict travel restrictions, curfews, and seizures of 
personal property.
  These so-called ``enemy aliens'' were required to carry photo-bearing 
ID booklets at all times, forbidden to travel beyond a five mile radius 
of their homes, and required to turn in any shortwave radios, cameras, 
flashlights and firearms in their possession. In California 52,000 
Italian residents were subjected to a curfew. In Monterey, Boston, and 
elsewhere Italian American fishermen were grounded. Many fishermen who 
were naturalized citizens had their boats impounded by the navy--all 
this while half a million Italian Americans were serving, fighting, and 
dying in the U.S. armed forces during World War II.
  It has long been a historical misconception that President 
Roosevelt's infamous Executive Order 9066 applied only to Japanese and 
Japanese-Americans living in the western states. Clearly this was not 
the case. There is another chapter to this sad story, ``Una Storia 
Segreta''--a secret story. The bill I am introducing today is an 
attempt to start setting the record straight.
  The Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties Act calls 
on the Department of

[[Page E1474]]

Justice to prepare and publish a comprehensive report detailing the 
government's unjust policies and practices during this time period. A 
part of this report would include an examination of ways in which civil 
liberties can be safeguarded during future national emergencies.
  This legislation would also encourage relevant federal agencies to 
support projects such as exhibitions and documentaries that would 
heighten public awareness of this unfortunate episode. Further, it 
recommends the formation of an advisory committee to assist in the 
compilation of relevant information regarding this matter and related 
public policy matters.
  Finally, the Wartime Violation of Italian American Civil Liberties 
Act calls upon the President to acknowledge formally our government's 
systematic denial of civil liberties to what was then the largest 
foreign-born ethnic group in the United States.
  I am pleased to say that I am joined today in introducing this 
important piece of legislation by 62 of my colleagues from both sides 
of the aisle, including fellow-New York Representative Eliot Engel, who 
has led the way on this issue. The diversity of this list of original 
cosponsors, is indicative of both the national scope of the injustices 
that took place and the widespread interest--interest across ethnic and 
geographic lines--that justice is finally done. We owe it to the 
Italian American community and the American public to find out and 
publicize exactly what happened. A complete understanding of the ethnic 
persecution that took place in this sad chapter of American history is 
the best guarantee that it will never happen again.

                          ____________________