Sacco And Vanzetti's Immigration Case Study

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In the early to late 1920’s the U.S. was struggling with many prejudices, immigration problems and flaws within the judicial system. A combination of these things contributed to Sacco and Vanzetti’s case which towards the end, gained international exposure and popularity. Both men were Italian immigrants who came to the U.S. in their youth in search of work and a better life. Sacco was no stranger to hard work and when he came to the U.S. nothing changed. He worked his way up so that he had a family, made a decent living and had good savings. Vanzetti on the other hand was a bit more intellectual and he bounced from job to job. Other than hailing from the same country, both men shared another important characteristic, they were both anarchists. …show more content…

Although immigration had decreased during the war, after the war it had rose again. People were coming to the U.S. for peace, something difficult to find elsewhere in Europe. At the same time jobs were quickly diminishing because the need for jobs to build weaponry and other things needed for the war had gone away and big businesses did not care. So while many veterans and common people were out of jobs, immigrants were flooding in with no real limit on how many were aloud to come. This created a barrier between U.S. citizens and immigrants which made the citizens look down on them and see them as rivals. Also as mentioned Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists, which means they did not see the necessity in government. At the time there was a government crackdown on radicals which brought out the “Red Scare,” which is the fear of communism spreading in the working class. Just two days before Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested they were put on a watchlist by the government for fear that they might be radicals as well. In addition, as another result of all the immigration at the time and the ending of the war, the U.S. had a strong feeling of nativism. Even throughout history americans always expressed hostility to immigrants that threaten the “American way of life.” Sacco and Vanzetti fit perfectly into the american prejudices which put them at a huge disadvantage from the

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