Biography
Domenick Sallitto was an Italian-born anarchist in the San Francisco Bay Area who chaired anarchist meetings and, with Vincent Ferrero, was a defendant in one of the most prominent anarchist deportation cases of the 1930s. After sixteen years in the United States he was arrested on April 11, 1934 by immigration inspectors in Oakland, California and ordered deported to Fascist Italy, where anarchists faced imprisonment or death. A four-year defense campaign — backed by the ACLU (his attorney was Austin Lewis), the labor movement, and the anarchist press — followed, and in 1938 the Department of Labor canceled his deportation. After a long naturalization battle he was granted U.S. citizenship in January 1954, and he later volunteered for the ACLU.
A contemporary Daily Worker report of February 19, 1936 places Sallitto among the Ellis Island political detainees visited by writers on Lincoln's Birthday.
The Daily Worker of September12,1936 reports that Sallitto’s deportation appeal was scheduled for the week of October5. It notes that Judge Caffey had dismissed his habeas petition in March and that his defenders included the Ferrero-Sallitto Defense Conference.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 4: The Baer interview reports Sallitto released from Ellis Island two weeks earlier on $1,000 bail pending his Circuit Court of Appeals challenge to deportation to Italy. This supplies a later reported bail episode without assigning an exact discharge day or replacing the independently recorded earlier 1934 release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The report individually names this labor deportee among those then held while Mannisto was removed. Threatened deportation and predicted fascist persecution are not recorded as completed removal or death; earlier and later bail evidence remains separate. Daily Worker, December 30, 1935, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n314-NY-dec-30-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Printed Dominic Sallitto, the Oakland anarchist is described as arrested April 11, 1934 after renting a room for radical publishing, with a four-year-old daughter. The report announces an Ellis Island surrender for December 18, 1936 prospectively. It corroborates the initial arrest day but proves neither an accomplished December surrender nor deportation to Italy. Laisve, December 17, 1936, original PDF page 8. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1936/1936-12-17-LAISVE.pdf#page=8
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937, page 9: A defense advertisement announces a January 15 concert and dance at Stuyvesant Casino, 140 Second Avenue, New York, opposing the deportations of Ferrero and Sallitto. This establishes an ongoing public defense campaign, not a completed deportation, a new arrest or a physical custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%202-96.pdf
Page 8's editorial reports Judge Francis G. Caffey upheld the decision to deport the anti-fascist on March 24, 1936, to Italy. It discusses these rulings in opposition to proposed deportation legislation. This is a report of judicial approval of removal, not a completed departure or individual physical release; no existing actual custody endpoint is changed. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n079-Late-Morning-Ed-apr-01-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Paolo Finzi identifies Domenico Sallitto, called Menico, as the guide who accompanied his summer 1979 visit to Vincenzo Ferrero near San Francisco. The memoir reproduces the joint April 11, 1934 Oakland immigration arrests and subsequent releases on bail, recurring detention and suspended deportation, without assigning any new physical discharge day or continuous custody duration. Source: https://centrostudilibertari.it/sites/default/files/materiali/bollettino_32.pdf#page=38; https://centrostudilibertari.it/sites/default/files/materiali/bollettino_32.pdf#page=39
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 3 reports cancellation of his deportation warrant by the Department of Labor and describes him as freed recently, with $1,000 bond mentioned. It recalls his April 11, 1934 Oakland arrest with Vincent Ferrero. This corroborates the existing 1938 cancellation without assigning the issue date as the exact warrant or physical-release day. It does not say he remained continuously detained for the entire defense campaign.
Page 5 prints the July 2 San Francisco Labor College protest resolution and a July 13 New York committee letter against deportation to Fascist Italy. The editor corrects the committee: actual arrests were April 11, 1934 in Oakland, not a new arrest several months before in San Francisco. Reported evidence included chairing a Marinus van der Lubbe debate and renting space or providing a mail address for MAN!; attorney Austin Lewis had twice stayed removal. The feared fifteen-year Italian penalty is prospective exposure, not actual imprisonment served or an accomplished deportation. Page 3 documents solidarity from Mooney’s committee.
Daily Worker, April 1, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page3’s anti-fascist deportation report identifies Domenick Sallitto as ordered to surrender on publication day, December25, with removal to Italy threatened; no actual surrender or sailing established. It attributes political grounds and danger of persecution to the AmericanCommitteeForProtectionOfForeignBorn. No new detention episode is created merely from this interim status.
The review of Charles Recht’s The Right of Asylum names Sallitto and Ferrero as California residents held for deportation to Italy over renting restaurant office space to anarchists. It separately lists Eric Becker, Carl Ohm, Otto Richter, Stella Petrosky and Walter Baer among radical or labor activists held for deportation. These are current detention and threatened removal references, not proof of actual deportation, a new admission or individually measured custody.
