Biography
Ray Carlson, also reported as Ragnar Carlson, was a Swedish immigrant and International Labor Defense organizer in Spokane, Washington. Immigration authorities detained him in Washington and sent him east from Spokane under guard on a deportation train on October 25, 1934. His wife and young son accompanied him, and he was subsequently held at Ellis Island. He was held in solitary confinement while fighting deportation. Judge Goddard denied habeas corpus petitions for Carlson and fellow detainee John Ujich on December 7, 1934; their lawyers secured a ten-day stay to appeal. The Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born subsequently obtained Carlson's release on bail, reported by March 28, 1935.
The Daily Worker of February 16, 1935, page 3, reports a resolution by the Scandinavian Workers' Club of Rockford to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins demanding Carlson's unconditional release and protesting deportation of militant workers. It prints his name as Ragner Carlson. This documents the defense campaign and name variant, not proof of an executed deportation or a new detention.
Daily Worker, October 31, 1934, page 1: The paper identifies him as a Swedish Tacoma worker active in the ILD among deportation-train arrivals taken to Ellis Island on Monday, October 29. The Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born obtained a habeas corpus writ temporarily stopping his removal. A stay of deportation is not release from detention or proof of deportation; the report’s Tacoma description does not erase his independently documented Spokane organizing.
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. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n030-Nat-sect-1-feb-04-1935-DW-LOC.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
The March 29, 1935 Daily Worker named him among the political deportees accompanying John Ujich on the guarded eastbound deportation-train journey to Ellis Island. The report described a filthy, overcrowded barred car and public solidarity greetings at Spokane and Chicago. It gives no release endpoint. Separate source evidence places his boarding at Spokane on October 25, 1934; this does not assign him a Seattle boarding date. Carlson was accompanied by his wife and four-year-old son; the matron denied his wife privacy from other passengers. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n076-NAT-mar-29-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=5
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
Daily Worker, February 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 5 reports actual guarded departure from Spokane on October 25, 1934 with his wife and small son, alongside Mannisto and Ujich; fifty supporters saw them off. Although its headline says deported, page 1 reports a Monday writ halting his removal and continued Ellis Island detention. The train journey is not completed overseas deportation or release.
The January 5, 1935 editorial reports that a bond of $2,000 was demanded for Ray Carlson during his Ellis Island detention. A demanded bond is not a posted bond, physical release or completed deportation; the later independently recorded bail-release history is preserved.
