Biography
Joseph Shaffer was an immigration detainee actually held in Allegheny County jail in 1933. The June 15 Daily Worker reports that he was arrested in the January 1933 Bobtown raid and that habeas proceedings failed to stop a deportation order. A related appeal on page four prints the name Joe Shafer. The account associates the detention with unemployed workers’ organizing, but does not establish a physical discharge or actual deportation. Exact admission and complete custody duration remain unknown. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n143-NY-jun-15-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Sources
The June 12 Pittsburgh dispatch in the June 14, 1933 Daily Worker individually names Joseph Shaffer among four workers held in Allegheny County jail by immigration authorities. It reports that Judge Schoonmaker refused writs of habeas corpus and that their deportation was ordered; this is not evidence that the order was carried out or that they were physically released.
