Immigration to America

Later in the 19th century immigration in the US became very large and prominent, with millions of new immigrants from Europe. In this history essay I will discuss immigration in American, during the 19th century.

Ellis Island

Before 1890, individual US states were responsible with their immigration, but in 1890 the US government took control of immigration. The government then created some new immigration stations. The main immigration station buildings were placed on an Island in New York Harbor. This Island was/is called Ellis Island(a very small three acre Island at the time). The immigarton station on Ellis Island opened up officially on January 1st, 1892; the first person who went through this immigration station was an Irish immigrant named Annie Moore. Unfortunately five years into operation a fire occured which burned down the main immigration buildings, also many of the records and documents were destroyed, which was a large setback. But in 1900 the new buildings were fully built, and this time “fireproof.”

During the first day of operation around 2,251 immigrants were processed, and the biggest year for the number of immigrants processed was in 1907. The total number of immigrants that went through Ellis Island was an astounding 1.25 million! That is a lot of people in one year. Because of the pretty large number of immigrants that were being processed on Ellis Island, the Island was enlarged from its original three acres to twenty-seven point five acres, which was actually reasonable. In 1921 the “Passage of the Immigrant Quota Act” was passed and another act the “National Origins Act” which was passed in 1924, limited the number of immigrants coming to the US, which in turn ended the era of mass immigration in US history.

Conclusion

 The Island officially closed down for immigration in 1954. In 1965 was declared as part of the Statue of Liberty national monument, and was opened to the public as an attraction in 1976, and has been a museum since 1990.