During the Red Scare of 1918 – 19 , in response to the 1919 anarchist bombings aimed at prominent government officials and businessmen , U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer , supported by J. Edgar Hoover , then head of the Justice Department 's Enemy Aliens Registration Section , prosecuted several hundred foreign-born known and suspected activists in the United States under the Sedition Act of 1918 . This extended the Espionage Act to cover a broader range of offenses . After being convicted , persons including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were deported to the Soviet Union on a ship the press called the " Soviet Ark "
1919 anarchist bombings
1919 United States anarchist bombings
Espionage Act of 1917