I’m probably here, thanks in large part to Ellis Island. It was, for quite a long time, the gateway to America. The place where so many immigrants entered the United States on their way to new lives and new freedoms.
But as they say. All good things must come to an end. It was on this date, November 12, 1954, that Ellis Island shut it doors forever.
Yet. From 1892 to 1954, it processed more than 12 million immigrants in the years it was open.
For those who don’t know it well, Ellis Island is located in New York Harbor off the New Jersey coast. It got its name from a merchant, Samuel Ellis, who owned the land in the 1770s.
Of course, a lot of people came to America before 1892. And in those days, the processing of immigrants had been handled by individual states. But then, President Benjamin Harrison — our 23rd President — designated Ellis Island as America’s first federal immigration center in 1890.
But to be quite honest, it was the place where poor people came through. Mostly due to the logistics of big boats. The waters surrounding Ellis Island were too shallow for transatlantic ships. It takes a lot to dock one of those big boats, and deep water is a definite must. So most of the ships docked and unloaded their passengers in Manhattan.
With that, the first and second-class passengers were allowed to enter the country there in New York, where they landed. All they had to do was to undergo a brief inspection. But the people riding in steerage? The poor people? Those passengers were herded onto ferries and shuttled to Ellis Island for further processing.
Out there on Ellis, the busiest years occurred between 1892 and 1924.
When the island started out, it was a small piece of land — only 3.3-acres. But during those “busy” years, the island was enlarged with landfill methods. And by the 1930s, it reached its current 27.5-acre size. They built more buildings and hired more people to handle the influx of immigrants. During the busiest year of operation, 1907, over 1 million people were processed at Ellis Island.
I could write pages about all the interesting nuggets about Ellis. Like dispelling the falsity that people were forced to change their names to “Americanize” them when they got to Ellis. Once immigrants landed, all that happened was a verification of their identity against passenger lists. If someone changed their name, they did it before or after their entry at Ellis.
One thing most people don’t know is that Ellis Island eventually became more famous for deportations than immigration. During the 1920s, a series of federal laws ended the open-door immigration policy here in the United States. Quotas for the number of new arrivals to the United States were established.
By 1925, Ellis Island had been converted primarily into a detention center and deportation point for undesirable immigrants. The island was used to imprison and evict suspected communists and political radicals during the Red Scare. It also served as a detention center for communists during the Cold War. There were scandals and lawsuits. And the island’s reputation had been marred in the eyes of the public over time.
Eventually, on this date in 1954, the port was closed for good as part of a federal cost-saving measure. But for a time, that island was a grand entrance to a new world. A place to find freedom and new opportunity.
My people. Your people.
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“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”
― Abraham Lincoln
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“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.”
― Tim Fargo
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“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it. ”
― Boris Pasternak
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“Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.“
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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Ellis. The place for the poor to come, and then for them to go.
