Ellis Island is a historical site that opened in 1892 as an immigration station, a purpose it served for more than 60 years until it closed in 1954. Located at the mouth of Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, Ellis Island there were more than twelve million immigrants who passed through the U.S. immigration portal at Ellis Island. In fact, it has been estimated that close to 40 percent of all current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island.
When Ellis Island opened, a great change was taking place in U.S. immigration. Fewer arrivals were coming from northern and western Europe—Germany, Ireland, Britain and the Scandinavian countries—as more and more immigrants poured in from southern and eastern Europe. Among this new generation were Jews escaping from political and economic oppression in czarist Russia and eastern Europe and Italians escaping poverty in their country. There were also Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Slovaks and Greeks, along with non-Europeans from Syria, Turkey and Armenia. The reasons they left their homes in the Old World included war, drought, famine and religious persecution, and all had hopes for greater opportunity in the New World.
Being an immigrant wasn’t easy. The journey through Ellis Island was intimidating and often frightening. But despite their fears and doubts, millions of people made the trip and built a better future for themselves and their families. They arrived from around the world for countless reasons. Some fled persecution, some ran from famine, and many came simply for the possibility of a better life. Without their bravery, we wouldn’t be the country we are today.
Step 1: Arrive at Ellis Island.
After traveling by boat for many days, or even weeks, the immigrants would arrive at Ellis Island exhausted, but anxious. Only a pass through the registration hall separated them from their life in America.
BAGGAGE ROOM
The first stop was the baggage room — a large hall stuffed with trunks and suitcases. This service was meant to ease the process for immigrants, but many actually refused to use it. For most of them, the clothes on their back and the bag in their hand was their only worldly possessions. None could afford the risk of leaving their belongings behind and wind up losing them forever.
REGISTRY ROOM
From the baggage room, immigrants would climb up the stairs to enter the registry room. On most days, there could be as many as 5,000-6,000 immigrants waiting to be processed.
One immigrant described the scene as a Tower of Babel — masses of people huddled together, all speaking different languages and all full of fear.
Fear of the unknown. Fear of being sent to the hospital. Fear of deportation. Fear of being separated from their family. Can you imagine the endless possibilities running through their minds?
The next step was a physical and then an interview.
Immigrants were stringently interrogated by the immigration officers. They’d be asked why they were coming, where they were planning to live, how they were planning to support themselves and even about their political beliefs.
Only two steps, but it required hours and hours of waiting.
Step 2: Undergo medical examinations. The exams were referred to as “six-second physicals,” because the majority were conducted within a six-second glance at an immigrant.
From the moment they stepped foot onto Ellis Island, immigrants were watched carefully. As you climbed the steps to the registry room, doctors would look for heart problems, difficulty breathing, any kind of disability. Public Health Service doctors looked to see if any of them wheezed, coughed, shuffled or limped. Children were asked their names to make sure they weren't deaf or dumb. Toddlers were taken from their mothers' arms and made to walk. As the line moved forward, doctors had only a few seconds to check each immigrant for sixty symptoms of disease. Of primary concern were cholera, favus (scalp and nail fungus), tuberculosis, insanity, epilepsy, and mental impairments. The disease most feared was trachoma, a highly contagious eye infection that could lead to blindness and death.
When it was time for the physical exam, doctors had less than 30 seconds to decide whether an immigrant needed further examination. Those who weren’t fit enough to become laborers, or were considered too weak, sick, or mentally unstable, would be chalked and possibly sent home.
“Chalking” meant the doctor would take white piece of chalk and mark their clothing, indicating a special condition. The mark would correspond to one of hundreds of diseases or ailments that the doctor might suspect.
Being chalked was one of the immigrants’ worst fears. It meant that, instead of continuing into the country, you would be sent to the hospital for further testing.
Hospital Wards
If they were sick, they spent days, weeks, months even, in a warren of rooms. Some, like the tuberculosis ward, were open to the sea, where a gentle New York harbor breeze cleansed their lungs, improving their chances. Other rooms were solitary, forlorn places where the illness itself decided when to leave or stay. Most patients in the hospital or Contagious Disease Ward recovered, but some were not so lucky. More than 120,000 immigrants were sent back to their countries of origin, and during the island's half-century of operation more than 3,500 immigrants died there.
Mental exams and interviews at Ellis Island
Step 3: Interview with an immigration inspector. During the interview, immigrants answered 29 questions about their identity, including their race, physical health, and how much money they carried with them. Immigrants were evaluated based on their perceived fitness and wealth. They were excluded if they were labeled a “likely public charge” (LPC), which meant they were considered to be a current or future economic burden to the country.
Immigrants were stringently interrogated by the immigration officers. They’d be asked why they were coming, where they were planning to live, how they were planning to support themselves and even about their political beliefs.
Every immigrant who passed the health inspection then had to undergo a mental exam. The government was hoping to weed out anyone who they found to be “feeble minded” or mentally unfit. Many of the test results were based only on facial appearance.
Ellis Island waylaid certain arrivals, including those likely to become public charges (LPC), such as unescorted women and children. Women could not leave Ellis Island with a man not related to them. Single women were often seen as “moral risks” and then deemed LPCs as a result. In many cases, LPCs were admitted into the U.S. if they could post a $500 public charge bond. Those who could not afford to pay faced deportation.Other detainees included stowaways, alien seamen, anarchists, Bolsheviks, criminals and those judged to be "immoral."
Approximately 20 percent of immigrants inspected at Ellis Island were temporarily detained, half for health reasons and half for legal reasons.
LANGUAGE BARRIERS
Unfortunately, many of the immigrants were considered to be uneducated, even stupid, if they didn’t speak proper English. The test only gave the government another excuse for deportation.
Step 4: Leave Ellis Island. Most immigrants at Ellis Island were free to go within a few hours of their arrival. Only 6% of immigrants were denied entry to the country. The typical reasons for a denial would be that the inspector thought the immigrant carried a contagious disease or that they were likely to become a “public charge”—dependent on government benefits.
https://www.statueofliberty.org/ellis-island/overview-history/
https://www.statueofliberty.org/discover/stories-and-oral-histories/
https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/ellis-island
https://www.aiisf.org/ellis-angel
