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Enemy alien

An enemy alien was a native, citizen or subject of a country at war with the United States who lived here and so came under wartime controls.

The label followed the wars: British subjects in the War of 1812, Germans and their allies in World War I, and Germans, Italians and Japanese in World War II. Enemy aliens could be required to register, faced closer watch, and some were interned.

These programs left records with rich personal detail. In World War I, American-born women married to men from enemy nations were treated as enemy aliens too. In World War II the immigration service ran internment camps and detention centers for enemy aliens.

As seen in a recordEnemy alien registration, 1918
Registration Affidavit of Alien Enemy. Heinrich Hartung, born Bremen, Germany, 1879; arrived Baltimore, 1902; residence Milwaukee, Wis.
Sources
How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "Enemy alien." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/enemy-alien. Last checked 2026-10-03.

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Next: Expatriation