Ellis Island
In the 1892 more than twelve million people entered the United States through Ellis Island. Four out of every ten Americans claim ancestors who came through the place. While many people probably recall Ellis Island as the beginning of a new life of economic opportunity, the passage through its doors to America also meant a choice to become and American freely taken, and for the most part, freely given. For this reason, Ellis Island, the place, stands beside the Declaration of Independence, the constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation as one of the major "documents" of the American nation. It has importance for all of European, African, Asian, or Latin American origin that chose or will choose to become Americans. When Ellis Island opened its doors in 1892, the United States was the world's oldest democracy and one of its youngest nations. Much in need of the labor, brawn, and talents of newcomers, this nation of people who were born and would continue to be born elsewhere, had to create original methods for gaining citizenship. You could become and American by being born here or by blood inheritance: but one could also choose to be American. One of the most creative and unique aspects of United States Na
tionality is that one can choose to possess it. The decision made by Ellis Island inspectors for admission instead of deportation was, a preliminary to the naturalization process of aliens. Immigration officials and legislators understood the entrance procedures as a screening out of those who would not make desirable citizens. Ellis Island was a place where thousands chose to start the process of becoming an American. Despite all of this Ellis Island continues to be best remembered as and an immigrant processing center. Indeed, it was a stage on which the terms of American immigration law were acted out. Once this is grasped everything that happened there can be understood. The questions asked by legal and medical inspectors, the provision of hospitalization and contagious disease units, deportation, and the Special Boards of Inquiry were bureaucratic solutions to legal requirements. Ellis Island's changing function from an admission center to a deportation and detention center after 1924 also resulted from changes in immigration law. Its coming into being in 1892 resulted from national politics of the moment, specifically, the growing acceptance in post-Civil War America of a strong centralized national government, one which could oversee rapid industrial development, a national transportation system, and a national economy. Immigration, supervised by the several states if it was regulated at all before the 1880's, provided a cle
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Approximate Word count = 976
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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