Anthony Caminetti

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Anthony Caminetti

Anthony Caminetti (July 30, 1854 – November 17, 1923) was a United States Representative from California.

Biography

He was born in Jackson, California. He attended the public schools of his native county, the grammar schools in San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley. He also studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1877 and commenced practice in Jackson. He was the district attorney of Amador County from 1878 until 1882.

Caminetti served in the California State Assembly in 1883–1885. In 1886 his son was born, Farley Drew Caminetti.

He was also a member of the State Senate from 1885 to 1887. He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1895). He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1894 for reelection to the Fifty-fourth Congress. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896 and again a member of the State assembly from 1897 until 1901. In April 1897, he was appointed code commissioner and served until July 31, 1899.

He was member of the State Senate from 1907 to 1913 and served as United States Commissioner General of Immigration from 1913 to 1921. In 1913, his son, Farley Drew Caminetti, was arrested under the Mann Act when he took his mistress to Reno, Nevada across the state line.

As immigration chief he displayed a naked Eurocentic xenophobia and argued that the U.S. Congress should end all immigration of Chinese, Japanese and Malays because they represented the "Asiatic menace." In 1915 he was assigned to the National Employment Bureau. In 1917, he was appointed a member of the War Industries Board and after the war was sent to Europe to investigate conditions there. He engaged in the practice of law in Jackson, California until his death in 1923. He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

Further reading

• Acherman, Kenneth D., Young J. Edgar: Hoover, The Red Scare, and The Assault on Civil Liberties. New York: Carroll & Graf. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7867-1775-0. ("Asiatic menace" on page 54).
• Giovinco, Joseph P., The California Career of Anthony Caminetti, Italian-American Politician. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1973.

California Assembly
Preceded by Charles B. Swift, Chapman Warkins	California State Assemblyman, 16th District (Amador County seat) 1883-1885 (with Robert Stewart)	Succeeded by George H. Colby
Preceded by James H. Tibbits	California State Assemblyman, 15th District 1897-1901	Succeeded by Frederick L. Stewart
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Marion Biggs	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 2nd congressional district 1891-1895	Succeeded by Grove L. Johnson