Biography
A. W. Mills was an organizer of the December 1931 National Hunger March to Washington and a member of the national committee of the Unemployed Councils. Immigration officials arrested him at the Workers Center in New York on July 12, 1932, under a deportation warrant issued by the Department of Labor. He was booked at the Mercer Street police station and taken to Ellis Island. International Labor Defense attorney Allan Taub accompanied him and sought his release on $1,000 bail.
A September16,1932 Daily Worker report prints G.W.Mills, identifying the same National Hunger March organizer arrested at the Workers Center and subject to deportation. It states he was now out on $1000 bail and announces an Ellis Island hearing for the following Wednesday. This supplies completed bail liberty by publication, without an exact release day or completed deportation hearing. The initial-letter discrepancy is retained as printed, without a second person or case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n222-NY-sep-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935, page 1: The paper prints Alexander W. Mills and identifies him as Philadelphia Communist district organizer in a deportation proceeding more than two years old. He refused offered voluntary departure; attorney Irving Schwab moved to quash the proceeding. Both that motion and an Ellis Island demand for $1,000 cash to replace the surety bond on which he was already at liberty were referred to Washington. The continuing proceeding and initials connect this report to the existing A. W. Mills case; no new detention, completed deportation, fresh release date or definitive full-name change is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n004-Nat-jan-04-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed pages 145 and 149 (PDF pages 6 and 10): Peter Chaunt's Protect the Foreign Born and Robert Dunn's Dies Deportation Drive describe the campaign against labor organizers. Chaunt identifies the National Hunger March organizer as held for deportation, with an individually captioned inset portrait; his existing production portrait is retained. Their accounts of the proposed Dies bill and its supporters are contemporary advocacy; proposed legislation and feared foreign penalties are not individual sentences served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed page 168 identifies the hunger-march organizer arrested for deportation, under $1,000 bail with his hearing still expected. This documents the immigration defense during the existing case; it does not certify removal from the country, a criminal sentence or the exact physical bail-release day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 1 names this organizer among five arrested when Detroit police broke up the Ferry and Chene Hands Off China meeting. The issue gives no exact arrest day or individual count, verdict or custody endpoint. This is separate from the other recorded arrest.
