Sonny Bono: “Mr. Speaker, on November 10, 1999, the House passed H.R. 2442 by voice vote. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the…”

“Mr. Speaker, on November 10, 1999, the House passed H.R. 2442 by voice vote. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, stated then that few people know that during World War II approximately 600,000 Italian Americans in the United States were deprived of their civil liberties by government measures that branded them ``enemy aliens.'' In fact, on December 7, 1941, hours after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI took into custody hundreds of Italian-American resident aliens previously classified as dangerous and shipped them to camps where they were imprisoned until Italy surrendered in 1943. As so-called enemy aliens, Italian-American resident aliens were required to carry special identification booklets at all times, and they were forced to turn into the government such items as shortwave radios, cameras, and flashlights. Those suspected of retaining these items had their homes raided by FBI agents. In California, about 52,000 Italian-American resident aliens were subjected to a curfew that confined them to their homes between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and a travel restriction that prohibited them from traveling further than 5 miles from their homes. These measures made it difficult, if not impossible, for some Italian Americans to travel to their jobs, and thousands were arrested for violations of these and other restrictions.”