The Immigration Processing Center
What was it like to land at Ellis Island, hoping to be admitted to the United States? At the centers, immigrants were questioned about their personal histories and subjected to a physical and mental examination. If the immigrant did not pass these exams, he or she would be marked with chalk and detained. Sometimes entire families were detained. The detention period may have lasted as long as a few years, particularly in the case of the Chinese who entered America through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. In the mid-1800's states controlled the immigration process, not the federal government. The federal government didn't become involved until 1882. Then, as now, immigrants were sometimes welcomed and other times shunned.
Ellis Island, New York Harbor, c. 1892
Copy of chalk marks used on immigrants
A health check at Ellis Island
Immigrants waiting at Angel Island
The top cartoon by Joseph Keppler from Puck magazine, 1880, shows immigrants being welcomed by Uncle Sam. In the bottom cartoon, by the same artist, immigrants are being rejected in1893-by people who were immigrants themselves.