100 years ago the United States had a LARGE German-American population. Upon entering the first World War against Germany, many Americans feared German spies might be lurking in their neighborhoods. Hollywood and archival government docs tell us that paid informants WERE in urban areas and watching military bases. Enemy alien lists were compiled of recent Germany immigrants who had become naturalized. The naturalization process gave an immigrant citizenship.
Even after naturalization some new citizens changed their names to avoid suspicion and confrontation. As an example, Donald Trump's grandfather was allegedly born Friedrich Drumpf in Kallstadt, Germany. Fred Trump was later naturalized in his new home of America before his death in Queens, New York City in 1918.
While searching today for news articles of my family on the Oklahoma/Kansas border, I found this from a 1918 Kansas paper:
Thankfully these "aliens" did not have their homes and possessions seized before being sent to internment camps for several years as was done to the Japanese during World War II.
Sources:
1. The Library of Congress made this newspaper available online. Have a look for yourself? Please share if you find something of interest or related to this theme:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83040592/1918-06-14/ed-1/
2. Trump lore: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/trump-astor-weathy-nyc-families-wills-revealed-article-1.2345156
3. Find naturalization papers online: https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Naturalization_Online_Genealogy_Records
Postscript: An alternative title to this blog post was mulled over as too obscure: "All Eight Of Them."