Biography
John Ujich was a Tacoma labor and unemployed-workers activist who fought deportation to fascist Italy. He had worked in American mines, mills and smelters and was involved with the Industrial Workers of the World by 1914. Immigration officials were holding him in Tacoma by June 1933 after a local arrest on a charge of tampering with light wires. He was later confined at Seattle's immigration station and transported under guard to Ellis Island on October 24, 1934. He was punished with solitary confinement for protesting conditions and the treatment of fellow detainees. The Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born raised $2,000 bail, securing his release on March 14, 1935. He surrendered again to immigration officials on August 23, 1935. A protest campaign secured a stay of the deportation scheduled for the following day.
Dwight Morgan's article in the Daily Worker of March 27, 1935, page 5, says Ujich had been in the United States for twenty-nine years and links the deportation campaign to his advocacy of food for unemployed families. Its general description of workers held for deportation is not taken to undo the independently recorded March 14 bail release or to establish a new detention. No immigration or custody date is calculated from the rounded residence period.
The Daily Worker of December 8, 1934, page 2, reports that Judge Goddard denied habeas corpus petitions for Ujich and Ragnar Carlson on December 7, while the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born's attorneys obtained a ten-day deportation stay to appeal to a higher court. This was a stay, not a completed deportation or release from detention.
Daily Worker, October 31, 1934, page 1: The paper prints Ujick and identifies him as a Tacoma detainee who arrived on the deportation train placed on Ellis Island on Monday, October 29. It reports that immigration official Forman put him and Chris Popoff in solitary confinement on October 30 for collecting small contributions to buy tobacco and other necessities for older detainees. This distinguishes arrival on the island from earlier departure or transport references, without changing the existing bail-release date.
Daily Worker, February 4, 1935: Pages 2 and 6 individually name him among five labor activists held for deportation whose freedom was to be demanded by a delegation representing more than 225 organizations. The announced meetings with immigration officials and Congressman Dickstein were proposed advocacy, not a release or completed removal. Page 2 specifically says his Court of Appeals hearing was set for February 4 in New York and identifies Carol Weiss King as counsel. No ruling is reported. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n030-Nat-sect-1-feb-04-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935: Page 2 reports an order to surrender at Ellis Island at 10 a.m. on May 24 after the Board of Review refused a stay and refused to reconsider the original Tacoma evidence. The American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born appealed to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. It also reports the indictment of his Tacoma habeas attorney A. B. Comfort, without establishing Comfort’s arrest or the charge. A surrender order is not confirmation of a new completed custody episode or deportation; the separately documented August 23 surrender remains unchanged. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n124-NAT-may-24-1935-DW-Q.pdf
The February 22, 1935 account of an Ellis Island interview with Otto Richter named him among fellow political deportees held there in segregation. The interview day was not printed, so the issue date is not an intake or transfer date. This corroborates the existing immigration episode without supplying a completed duration or overriding later established bail release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n046-Nat-feb-22-1935-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
A March 29, 1935 account described his transfer from Tacoma to Seattle immigration detention and solitary confinement after he defended two Canadian prisoners accused of taking excess sugar. Black trusty Bone Bronson brought him food, tobacco and trousers. On October 24, 1934 Ujich was handcuffed aboard a guarded deportation train at Seattle; the cross-country journey lasted five days in a filthy, overcrowded barred car. At Ellis Island he again underwent solitary confinement and three hospital stays attributed to inadequate food. The account confirms his March 14, 1935 release on $2,000 bail raised by the Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born. Its rounded five-month Ellis Island interval does not establish an exact total. He recalled twenty-five years of labor in American mills, mines and smelters and identification with militant IWW workers since 1914. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n076-NAT-mar-29-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=5
The March 23, 1935 anti-deportation account describes Ujich as a Tacoma unemployed activist who had lived in the United States for twenty-six years, born in territory formerly Austrian and then Italian. It names Carol King as defense counsel and describes habeas corpus litigation before Judge Goddard and an appeal, with a proposed Supreme Court challenge. Its depiction of ongoing detention conflicts with Ujich’s later first-person account establishing March 14 bail release; the earlier article is not evidence of a rearrest or uninterrupted confinement. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n071-NAT-mar-23-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=5
Page 2 reports an order to surrender at Ellis Island on May 24 for deportation to Italy, and an attorney’s planned Washington intervention. It links the proceedings to his relief organizing in Tacoma and says mass protest had already secured release on $3,000 bail. That amount conflicts with the existing $2,000 bail account and is retained as a source discrepancy. The May 24 surrender/deportation was prospective; no completed removal or new confinement is established here. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n117-NAT-may-16-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 reports that Ujich appeared in Federal District Court at New York on May 24 in compliance with the surrender order, and Carol King secured postponement pending an unanswered Board of Review appeal. The headline calls it a one-week stay, while the body says postponement to May 28; both readings are retained without silently choosing a different date. This article prints $2,000 for the already posted appeal bail, in contrast to the May 16 issue’s $3,000. Neither court appearance nor the stay proves a new jail admission or completed deportation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 1 calls for a labor turnout at Federal District Court, Old Post Office Building near City Hall, at 10 a.m. June 4 for his deportation hearing, and protests to Frances Perkins. It describes him as ordered to surrender that morning. The announcement is prospective and does not establish an executed removal, renewed jail admission or the outcome of the hearing. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n133-NAT-jun-04-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 reports that he was seriously ill on Ellis Island and was visited the previous Thursday, June 27, by seventeen-year-old Genevieve Petrosky, bringing solidarity from her mother Stella, the Wilkes-Barre relief organizer facing deportation to Poland. This documents a renewed period of immigration confinement by late June, after his already established March bail release and before the separate August surrender. It does not supply the exact admission day or establish a completed deportation. The daughter was a visitor; no arrest of her is reported. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n156-NAT-jul-01-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 individually names him among those still held for deportation whose freedom the American Committee for Protection of Foreign-born Workers urged after the Kettunen appellate victory. This is continued immigration-defense context for the existing case, not a separately documented intake, discharge or completed deportation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n190-NAT-aug-09-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 reports his actual noon surrender to immigration officials on August 23, 1935 after Byron H. Uhl refused more time to arrange voluntary departure to a country other than Italy. A Labor Department letter said Uhl had authority to grant an extension, but he again refused the committee’s appeal. The threatened August 24 deportation was still future at publication; this article does not prove it occurred or replace the later documented stay. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n203-NAT-aug-24-1935-DW-Q.pdf
In his open letter to Frances Perkins, printed in New Masses June 11, 1935, page 22 / PDF page 25, Ujich says he legally entered the United States in 1906, challenged Tacoma relief set at $1.50 weekly, and was accused of advocating violent overthrow. He says he did not speak Italian and was ordered deported to Italy, and announced that he would surrender Tuesday May 28. This is a prospective surrender announcement, not proof of completed admission or removal; existing custody dates remain unchanged. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1935/v15n11-jun-11-1935-NM.pdf#page=25
The June28,1933 Tacoma brief states that county officials had technically released Ujich after the light-wire accusation, but immigration officers continued holding him incommunicado without issuing a warrant or new charge. County release therefore did not end his physical federal custody. No original arrest day, final discharge or completed total is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n154-Nat-jun-28-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
Labor Defender, February 1935, PDF page 5: John Howard Lawson names him among five foreign-born workers physically held on Ellis Island when a delegation visited January 11, 1935. The account alleges segregation, confiscation of reading material, lack of exercise and efforts to prevent bail, with guards’ threat to shoot after paper was lighted to read mail in a dark room. Ujich was taken to hospital an hour before the visit; Lawson interviewed the other four. The continuation on PDF 24 identifies Popoff’s wife and three children in Syracuse and Mannisto’s typographical-union membership in Astoria, Oregon. These are attributed prison conditions and intermediate custody, not a fresh detention or executed deportation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n02-feb-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=5
Conflicting June 1935 custody report
The July 1, 1935 Daily Worker, page 2, describes Ujich as seriously ill at Ellis Island and reports a visit the preceding Thursday, June 27. This does not fit cleanly with the separately documented March 14 bail release and August 23 surrender. The report may describe an additional interval or contain a reporting-date error; it does not identify a new admission or discharge day. No continuous custody interval or new exact endpoint is inferred from it.
Daily Worker, March 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 8, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 24, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 4, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 1, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 9, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The June 28, 1933 Daily Worker, page 2, reports that Tacoma activist John Ujich, initially accused of tampering with light wires, had been technically released by the county authorities while remaining held incommunicado by federal authorities, reportedly without a warrant or new charges. This describes continuing physical detention despite the county's procedural release; it does not establish an actual discharge into freedom, an exact arrest or transfer date, a completed detention length, or a completed deportation. The separately recorded later custody episodes and March 14, 1935 bail release are preserved.
Page 5 names him as John Ujich of Tacoma aboard the guarded eastbound deportation train; page 1 prints Ujick among labor activists still held on Ellis Island. No new admission or physical release is established. A separately existing Ujick profile is a possible duplicate requiring a broader identity reconciliation; neither record is merged or deleted here.
The January 5, 1935 editorial says John Ujich had been denied bail while the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born appealed his deportation order. This reports a refusal by the authorities, not a refusal by Ujich to accept or post bail, and does not replace his later March 14 bail release or establish a new custody endpoint.
The November 3, 1934 Daily Worker prints John Ujick alongside Chris Popoff and reports that both had been taken out of solitary confinement at Ellis Island, as learned by a Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born representative the previous day. The paired Ellis Island punishment for collecting for fellow detainees’ necessities, and the Monday deportation-train arrival, correspond to the October 31 account already associated here with Tacoma activist John Ujich and the Ujick spelling. The report does not state the exact day solitary ended. It describes a change in conditions during continuing immigration confinement, not physical release, completed deportation, a new admission or an additional imprisonment episode. It supplies no complete custody duration and does not alter the separately documented March 14, 1935 bail release.
