WHAT'S A METAPHOR?: THE DEPORTATION OF A POET

Abstract

For more than four years the United States government tried to deport feminist author Margaret Randall for the political content of her publications. The legal basis for the government's case against Randall was the McCarran-Walter Act, the infamous 1952 law that authorizes the government to exclude and deport non-citizens for any number of ill-defined ideological "crimes." The McCarran-Walter Act was passed during the height of the Cold War, and remains on the books to this day.