New World War I website from the DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services History Office and Library

By Chris Isleib
Director of Corporate Communications, U.S. World War One Centennial Commission

Allison Finkelstein (left) and Zack Wilske of the USCIS History Office and Library.There is a great new online resource available from the Department of Homeland Security, that focuses on the World War I centennial. Specifically, this site tells the incredible story of the history of immigration and naturalization in the United States during the war. The site was created by Allison Finkelstein and Zack Wilske from the DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services History Office and Library. We caught up with Allison and Zack, and they told us about the site, and their work to create it.

Tell us a little bit about the new web page about your program, and about the centennial of World War I.

Our program address is: www.uscis.gov/historyandgenealogy. Our new WWI page is located at https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/world-war-i.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services History Office and Library recently launched a World War I (WWI) centennial website. This website will be the home of our new material highlighting the history of immigration and naturalization during WWI. While USCIS was only created in 2003, we date our history back more than 100 years to the Bureau of Immigration (1891) and the Bureau of Naturalization (1906), which later combined to form our legacy agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). We plan to use this website to highlight the unique roles these bureaus played during the war.

The website currently features two new articles. The first article tells the fascinating story of the Bureau of Immigration’s role in detaining German crew members on the night the U.S. entered WWI. The second article introduces readers to the involvement of immigrants in the U.S. armed forces during the war, an important topic we will return to in future additions to the website.

What kind of sources will be added to the web page?

A copy of the telegraph sent by the secretary of labor to Bureau of Immigration officials on duty at U.S. ports holding German ships on April 6, 1917.Over the course of the centennial period we will add additional content to the website that will cover a range of themes related both to our agency’s activities and immigrants themselves. This content will include topics such as military naturalization during the war, and the wartime experiences of Bureau of Immigration and Bureau of Naturalization employees. The website will also include a series profiling individual immigrant service members.

Throughout the website, we will discuss the primary sources we used in our research so that interested researchers can explore these topics further on their own. Much of our research relies on the records of the INS, both in USCIS custody and stored at the National Archives. These documents provide a rich record of twentieth century immigration and naturalization, including during the WWI era. In addition to highlighting our agency’s historical records, we plan to include material from other great repositories and agencies like the Library of Congress’s Veteran’s History Project, the National World War I Museum and Memorial, and the American Battle Monuments Commission.This 1919 poster by artist Howard Chandler Christy urged Americans to support the Victory Liberty Loan by highlighting the diversity of the men serving in the American armed forces, many of whom were immigrants. (Image: courtesy Library of Congress.)

What were the Bureau of Immigration and Bureau of Naturalization’s most important activities during the war?

Although the outbreak of WWI greatly reduced immigration to the U.S. from the high levels during the preceding years, the war resulted in the imposition of new duties on the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. The Bureau of Immigration became responsible for interning German crewmembers in the U.S. and enforcing stricter border crossing procedures. These activities demonstrate the homeland security roles played by our predecessor agencies long before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, of which USCIS is now a component.

The Bureau of Naturalization also played a key part in wartime changes to the citizenship process. During the war, Congress passed special military naturalization laws that provided an expedited path to citizenship for non-citizen service members. The Bureau of Naturalization coordinated this massive effort to quickly naturalize thousands of U.S. service members.

At the same time, the pressures of the war increased calls for immigrant Americanization programs and in 1918, the Bureau of Naturalization produced the first Federal Textbook on Citizenship to help better prepare naturalization applicants.

We hope to teach readers about these activities while also correcting some common misconceptions. For example, many people believe that service in the armed forces during WWI automatically conferred citizenship on non-citizen service members. This was not the case. While Congress made it easier for service members to naturalize, they were still required to submit a petition of citizenship and be formally sworn-in as naturalized citizens.

What else is happening as part of the DHS and USCIS’s efforts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of WWI?

DHS is proud to be a commemorative partner with the World War I commission. Several of our legacy agencies had existed in some manner during World War I, including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Secret Service, Customs and Board Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services. Throughout the Commemoration, various ceremonies will be held to mark specific dates or events from World War I that have particular meaning to DHS and to honor those service members from the U.S. Coast Guard who sacrificed their lives in the war.

Leading this effort is USCIS with the commemorative posters. These posters will interpret the history of DHS’s legacy agencies during World War I with a more detailed wartime history of the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Secret Service, and the border and immigration agencies that existed prior to DHS’s formation. This information will inform the public and current DHS staff about the history, heritage, and lineage that DHS can trace back to its legacy agencies during the War.