As war with France loomed, the Federalists seized the opportunity to curb the Democratic-Republicans’ vitriol by turning them into the enemy. The Federalists’ turn toward federal legislation as a tool to suppress the threat of dissent began with naturalization. Under Article I of the Constitution, Congress held the power to “establish an uniform rule of Nationalization,” and in 1790 it passed the first Naturalization Act. Attempting to encourage immigration to the new nation and increase citizenry, the act granted citizenship to “free white persons” of “good moral character” who had resided for two years in the United States. Fears of foreign influence and foreigners’ political participation and support for the Democratic-Republicans led Congress, which was then controlled by the Federalists, to revise the Naturalization Act in 1795, lengthening the time to become a U.S. citizen by increasing the U.S. residency requirement to five years.
Now, on the brink of war, Federalists sought to more than double the residency requirement. On June 18, 1798, Congress passed a new Naturalization Act, which increased the residency requirement to fourteen years. The act also included a requirement for all foreigners over the age of twenty-one to register with a clerk at the nearest U.S. district court to entry or residence and provide identification information, including gender, place of birth, age, nation of origin and citizenship, occupation or status, and residence in the United States.
One week later, on June 25, Congress passed an “An Act Concerning Aliens,” also known as the “Alien Friends Act.” It authorized the president “at any time during the continuance of this act, to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the United States, within such time as shall be expressed in such order.” Under the act, foreigners ordered deported could obtain a license from the president to remain if they could prove their presence posed “no injury or danger to the United States.” If a foreigner ordered deported did not obtain a license and attempted to evade deportation, he or she could be imprisoned for up to three years, and the president could deport the foreigner at any time “if public safety requires a speedy removal.” If a foreigner who was deported returns without permission from the president, the foreigner could be imprisoned at the president’s discretion and for as long as the president is of the opinion that the public safety requires it. The act was passed as a temporary measure and set to expire two years from its passage.