Lemuel Braddock Schofield was born in

Warren, Pennsylvania Warren is a city in Warren County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Allegheny River. The population was 9,404 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. It is home to the headquarters of the Allegheny National Forest ...

in 1892. He received his undergraduate degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, graduated from its law school in 1916, and was admitted to the

Pennsylvania Bar The Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in Pennsylvania, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, ...

that year. Schofield joined the U.S. Army during World War I. He served in the Infantry, rising to the rank of Major. Following the Armistice Schofield returned to private law practice. A prominent Philadelphia attorney, Schofield specialized in criminal law, representing clients in high-profile cases. He also held many public offices including Assistant District Attorney for Philadelphia from 1919 to 1926, the city's Director of Public Safety in the late 1920s, and Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General. Schofield led the U.S.

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

(INS) during its transition from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice and through the opening years of World War II. During his tenure, INS grew significantly in size and assumed many new wartime national security duties. While Commissioner, Schofield oversaw the Alien Registration program, which began in the fall of 1940 after passage of the

Smith Act The Alien Registration Act, popularly known as the Smith Act, 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, , is a United States federal statute that was enacted on June 28, 1940. It set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of th ...

, and the

internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

of enemy aliens. After leaving federal service, Schofield returned to his private law practice and taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple law schools. Schofield died at the age of 63 at his home near

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania Phoenixville is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia at the junction of French Creek (Schuylkill River tributary), French Creek and ...

on July 3, 1955. Schofield was attorney for the defense of John J. O'Malley in the O'Malley Case.

External links

Lemuel B. Schofield
at the Official Website of the Department of Homeland Security. 20th-century American lawyers University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni United States Army personnel of World War I 1892 births 1955 deaths Military personnel from Pennsylvania United States Army officers {{US-army-World-War-I-bio-stub