Port of El Paso Records
Arturo and Joseph,
Suzanne Harris of NARA has returned the batch of five requests I sent her. There were two cover letters that I will paraphrase here:
"Since 1845 there had been attempts in the United States to create or require a record of aliens within the country. Registration of alien enemy residents of the United States was required during World War I under section 19 of the President's Proclamation of November 16, 1917. A central set of records of the registration of alien enemies [Germans and ?], consisting of their registration affidavits, was assembled by the Department of Justice in Washington, DC during the war. However, in 1940, the Department of Justice reported to the National Archives that these registration affidavits had been destroyed with the permission of Congress. A small number of these registrations have survived and can be found in our regional archives in San Bruno, CA and Kansas City, MO. It is possible that others have survived on the county or state level."
"It was not until the Alien Registration Act of 1940 that a registry came into existence. The new law caused incoming immigrants and all aliens in the United States to be fingerprinted and to register annually with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Under this act, resident aliens registered at their local Post Office. In order to receive copies of Alien Registration records for the World War II period, it is necessary for you to submit the enclosed Freedom of Information/Privacy Act (Form G-639) request to the Immigration and Naturalization Service Headquarters, now know as the US Citizenship and immigration Services (USCIS), in Washington, DC.---"
