Ellis Island

It varied from case to case. Sadly, there were several situations where most of a family passed all the examinations. Health, literacy.

At times a child did not meet the requirements and standards and of the health issues could not be tended to, they would be sent back. Possibly alone. The adult or adults with them had to decide then and there, whether to have the child return back to the country of origin, or go back with them.

This applied to children above and 12. If under that age, a parent was also required to accompany the child back. If only one parent was there, and more than one child, various organizations and agencies (such as for adoption) would be contacted if the sole parent wanted their other offspring to have an opportunity for a better future.

Sturgis-

Thank you.

Are you making the claim that no White people simply crossed the border from Canada, or showed up in a boat that didn't go anywhere near Ellis island.

Yes, some White people went through Ellis Island.

A lot of White people avoided Ellis Island, and simply came through other means.

I want to make it very clear.

Our immigration system during the time that Ellis Island operated was explicitly racist. There were laws called "national origin laws" that were designed (and Congress said it openly) to limit the numbers of non-White races that were in the United States. The last of these laws was abolished in 1965 (well after Ellis Island closed).

Many times these laws were brutal, and resulted in the deaths of children. If the children weren't White, the press didn't really care.

The most famous of these was when we turned back a ship of refugees escaping Nazi Germany. I think most Americans are now ashamed of this decision.

Ellis Island was also a failure. There were close to zero people from Asia who came through Ellis Island. I think at one point, the racial quota laws allowed about 100 to enter.

People from Asia were excluded, many came through other means... most famously as paper children. Paper children used forged documents to change who their parents were so they could get into the US.

I am pretty sure my great-grandfather immigrated illegally (in the early 1900s). He was German. There was no record of him entering the US. He was in Canada. Then he was in upstate New York. Lots of White people just did that, no problem.

It is also interesting that for a long period, the anti-immigrant groups (i.e. the KKK and the Know-nothings) didn't care about Mexican immigrants. They were worried about stopping Asians and Italians from entering... these were Sothern Europeans who would ruin the culture with their foreign Catholic ways. Mexicans were laborers who didn't really threaten anyone and could cross the border without much problem.

At some point Italians became white, and Asians became the model minority. Now the Mexicans are considered to be the racial threat.

Use your friggin brain! A big reason there were less Asians arriving at Ellis Island had to do with location. Either they had to somehow navigate down around the tip of South America (prior to the Panama Canal) or wander around across the U.S. , then find a way to get on ship so that they could arrive in New York Harbor. Or maybe wander across Europe to find a ship sailing to the U.S.

Are you denying history, Sturgis?

There were racial quotas specifically designed to prevent Asians and other "undesirable" immigrants from coming. This is a fact.

The equivalent of Ellis Island on the West Coast was Angel Island (also known by the epithet "China Cove"). The purpose was to stop Chinese immigration, and the only way to get through was to prove you had a father or husband in the US.



https://www.kqed.org/perspectives/201601135503/angel-islands-dark-history

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/12/coronavirus-fear-of-asians-rooted-in-long-american-history-of-prejudicial-policies/

The history of "Paper Children" is also true. Chinese immigrants sent their children with papers giving them to American families...

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/17/251833652/chinese-american-descendants-uncover-forged-family-history

Try to focus max. I was responding directly to your idiotic comment on Asians and Ellis Island.
For your help with geography, Ellis Island is in New York Harbor, quite close to Liberty Island (formerly Bedloe's Island), where the Statue of Liberty is located.

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Yep.

Here you are again Glitterbag... following me to another thread to make nasty passive aggressive comments. You don't need to do this, but don't deny that this is exactly what you are doing.

Izzy, You are starting a fight about nothing just to start a fight. I think you probably agree with my position on this thread. You are just being an asshole about it.

The political spin from the right is that White immigrants are good immigrants. The narrative is that White people always followed the law, learned the language and there was a nice clean White immigration as part of a immigration system that was always free and fair. Of course, this narrative is really saying that Latino immigrants are bad immigrants.

I am responding to that narrative by saying

1) The immigration system was never fair. It was explicitly designed to favor White Northern Europeans and the keep out Asians and Africans. If you were White and had money, you could skip the immigration system.

2) Lots of White people immigrated here by breaking the immigration laws. If they were White, protestant with money and skills, no one cared.

3) Groups like Italians were treated as bad by anti-immigrant hardliners as todays Latinos are treated. The same racist insults on todays Latinos were leveled at Italians and Irish and other groups.

Tell me Sturgizzy. Do you disagree with any of these points? Or are you just here to be a jerk. If you do agree with me, then maybe you can explain it to Glitterbag. I don't have the patience.

Does it ever occur to you that everything is not about you. Perhaps I should send you my post to get approval or explain why it not about you? Maybe, just maybe I expressing exasperation at the pointless nature of this topic. I will not be explaining myself to you everytime you ASSUME I'm following you around and whatever I say HAS TO BE ABOUT YOU.

Give me a break Glitterbag,

1) You reply in your nasty, passive-aggressive way to a post that is addressed to me by name.

2) You still have not made a single comment on the topic of the thread,

3) Your behavior is the same in thread after thread after thread.

While you are here, do you have anything to say on the topic of Ellis Island or immigration?

No Max, it was posted after Sturgis.

Oh, so your passive aggressive sigh was directed at Sturgis?

That is just as bad.... (although I don't believe it for a minute).

Sturgis is not a neurotic bag of neediness who needs constant praise. But I'll ask him if he saw my exasperation as a passive aggressive attack on him.

I am pretty sure that Sturgis understood fully well that your nasty passive aggressive comment wasn't directed at him.

Now do you have anything to say about the topic of this thread? Or are you just here to bitch.