Biography
Alfred Miller was the editor of the Producers News at Plentywood, Montana, held for deportation to Nazi Germany, in the deportation drive of 1935 against foreign-born labor militants and anti-fascists.
The Daily Worker of February 19, 1936 names Miller among five political detainees visited by writers at Ellis Island on Lincoln's Birthday.
The May 26, 1936 Daily Worker reports the campaign for Producers News editor Alfred Miller’s deportation appeal, including a $250 appellate printing cost and a $100 contribution by the Workers Sick and Death Benefit Fund. It recalls his 1934 detention in Plentywood, Montana; the fundraising is a procedural defense development without a new intake or discharge date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n126-NY-May-26-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
A March 28, 1935 Plentywood report described three border-patrol officers taking the German-born Producers News editor to the local courthouse and questioning him for several hours during the preceding week. Officials introduced five copies of the farm newspaper in deportation proceedings. Miller was placed in local officers custody, then released on his own recognizance to attend the Sioux Falls farmers relief conference. The account does not establish a precise arrest day or prolonged detention. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n076-NAT-mar-29-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
The April 19, 1935 Plentywood report attributed immigration proceedings against the Producers News editor to retaliation for criticism of local relief administration. Farmers immediately provided a $1,000 bond, while the article separately states that Miller had been released on his own recognizance. His hearing was tentatively set for April 29; deportation to Germany remained a threat rather than a completed event. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n095-NAT-apr-20-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=2
The January 19 report lists him with a deportation sailing scheduled January 22 on the President Roosevelt. A sailing order is not proof that he left the United States, and independently documented later appeals and bail release remain unchanged. Daily Worker, January 20, 1936, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n017-NY-jan-20-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Page 8's editorial reports Judge Francis G. Caffey upheld the decision to deport the anti-fascist on March 24, 1936, to Germany. It discusses these rulings in opposition to proposed deportation legislation. This is a report of judicial approval of removal, not a completed departure or individual physical release; no existing actual custody endpoint is changed. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n079-Late-Morning-Ed-apr-01-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Abner Green, writing in the October 1936 Labor Defender, described Miller as the Plentywood Producers News editor arrested in 1935 and reported that a telegraphic immigration warrant arrived two weeks after his arrest. Green attributed the proceedings to retaliation for Miller's organizing and criticism. The article establishes no exact custody endpoint or completed deportation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn10-oct-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=17
Abner Green places Miller’s Plentywood arrest in 1935 and says Washington supplied a telegraphic warrant two weeks afterward. He attributes the seizure to Miller’s successful farm-relief organizing through the Producers News. The two-week warrant delay is not a physical release, and earlier reports that call his detention a 1934 event are not silently overwritten. The caption’s threatened deportation to Germany is prospective, not an accomplished removal. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn10-oct-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=17
Ellis Island detention and scheduled hearing in January 1936
The January 27, 1936 Daily Worker, original PDF page 4, identifies the Producers News editor of Plentywood, Montana, as arrested by immigration authorities on an allegation of Communist Party membership and currently held at Ellis Island. It reports that a planned deportation had been stayed and a federal-court hearing was scheduled for February 4. This establishes detention by publication, not a new admission date. Neither a deportation stay nor a scheduled hearing establishes actual release, and no custody counter is calculated.
Daily Worker, January 27, 1936, original PDF pages 1–4 as specified above. Contemporary allegations and witness accounts are attributed; no administrative event is treated as physical release.
Page 8 identifies the Producers News editor as facing deportation proceedings to Germany, alongside the Ferrero-Sallitto campaign. This corroborates the existing immigration case and danger alleged by the defense; the proceeding is not proof of actual removal or a new exact admission day.
Daily Worker, April 1, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The anti-Nazi refugee defense call names this worker among people threatened with deportation to Germany. It specifically describes Alfred Miller as a Montana farm-paper editor and Becker’s two brothers as concentration-camp prisoners; Richter was ordered to surrender May 15 and leave his American-born wife. Inclusion in the appeal alone is not proof that every listed person was then jailed or deported; independently recorded bail and later outcomes are retained.
In a first-person Labor Defender article, Alfred Miller states that immigration officials arrested him in Plentywood, Montana in March 1935 and describes his detention and deportation proceedings connected to alleged Communist Party membership. The account supplies the arrest month and place as narrative evidence; it does not establish an exact arrest day, a jail admission, physical release or completed duration. Labor Defender, Nov 1935, printed page 10.