Biography
Steve Perlich was a member of the National Miners Union in western Pennsylvania who distributed union leaflets. Immigration authorities sought to deport him to Yugoslavia in 1931. Although he was not a Communist Party member, officials argued that his union’s affiliations with the Trade Union Unity League and Red International of Labor Unions made him subject to deportation as a Communist. He was held on $1,000 cash bail in December 1931, alongside other foreign-born union activists facing deportation. The International Labor Defense organized his defense and sought the money needed for bail. He was subsequently listed among the prisoners held at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh.
Page 2 reports a threatened Yugoslavia deportation for the NMU member, attributing the action to his giving a woman a Daily Worker copy. The ILD was fighting the case. This is advocacy and threatened removal, not evidence that deportation had actually occurred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n268-NY-nov-07-1931-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, November 7, 1931; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Louis Colman’s deportation article individually identifies Steve Perlich as a National Miners Union member arrested in Bridgeport, Ohio for giving away a Daily Worker and held for deportation to Yugoslavia. The asserted reason for his persecution is the magazine’s account. This corroborates actual detention within his existing case, without establishing an exact arrest day, discharge, completed deportation or time served; the separate John Perlich/Perlach Milwaukee records are not merged with him.
