Topics on the Page
The U.S. border fence near El Paso, Texas
Current Immigration Facts and Asylum in the United States
Historical Ports of Entry
- Castle Island, New York City
- Ellis Island, New York City
- Sullivan's Island, South Carolina
- Angel Island, San Francisco
- Pelican Island, Galveston
- Columbia River Quarantine Station
- The American Mexican Border
Current Facts
QUIZ: See How Much You Know About Immigration in the United States, Council on Foreign Relations (July 2018)
There are 328 Ports of Entry to the United States. Link here to locate a Port of Entry in your state
Asylum in the United States
Fact Sheet for Asylum in the United States, American Immigration Council (May 14, 2018)
Asylum in the United States: A History, Southern Poverty Law Center
The Complicated History of Asylum in America--Explained, The Week (April 28, 2019)
Under current U.S. and international law, anyone who physically steps on U.S. soil is entitled to apply for asylum.
- Asylum seekers must then pass a "credible fear" interview.
- Immigration Agents then determine if the person(s) faces "significant possibility of persecution or harm in their home country
- An immigration court makes the final decision
- In 2018, 89% passed initial screening; under new Trump Administration rules, only 17% were granted asylum
Castle Garden, New York City (1855-1890)
America's First Immigration Center. 8 million immigrants passed through the center before the opening of Ellis Island. Records can be searched at this site.
Beginning in 1855, it was the nation's only organized immigration center
Castle Clinton National Monument, National Park Service
Where Immigrants Came Before Ellis Island, New York Historical Society
Before Ellis Island Existed, Castle Garden Welcomed Houdini and Typhoid Mary, from Atlas Obscura (April 7, 2016)
- Among those who entered where Harry Houdini, Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary), Nikola Tesla, Emma Goldman, Joseph Pulitzer, and Frederich Trumpf (President Donald Trump's grandfather)
Link to Dramatic Event page on the Irish Potato Famine
Ellis Island, New York City (1892-1954)
- 5000 to 10,000 people a day passed through between 1900 and 1914
Ellis Island Immigration Footage 1906
Selected Images of Ellis Island Immigration, 1880-1920, Library of Congress
Ellis Island Interactive Tour!
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Virtual Tour
Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story, Leslea Newman. Illustrated by Amy June Bates
- Picture book story of a young Jewish girl emigrating from Eastern Europe in the early 1990s
Links to Primary Sources from Ellis Island for students from the Parks Service.
Annie Moore
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Statue of Annie Moore, Ireland |
Annie Moore: First Immigrant Through Ellis Island, from Ellis Island Foundation. See January 1, 1892, the first immigrant landed on Ellis Island
She is honored by two statutes, one in Cobh, Ireland and the other at Ellis Island.
Story of the First Through Ellis Island Is Rewritten, New York Times (September 14, 2006).
She did come to New York City from Ireland at age 15, but she did not, however, go west to Texas to pursue the American Dream only to meet a tragic death in a streetcar accident at age 46. Instead she had 11 children (only 5 lived to adulthood) and lived a poor immigrant's life on the Lower East Side, dying at age 50.
Annie Moore is memorialized in the song "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears" by the group Celtic Thunder. Hear the song sung by Ronan Tynan on YouTube
Life of First Ellis Island Immigrant Revealed, NPR (September 15, 2006)
Lesson plan on How People Came to America, part of American History's 'Preparing for the Oath'.
Sullivan's Island, South Carolina
Sullivan's Island is Known as the Ellis Island of Slavery
Africans in Carolina, Lowcountry Digital History Initiative
A Port of Entry for Enslaved Africans
40 percent of all enslaved Africans brought to British North America entered here
Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project
- Identifying all ports of entry for Africans during the 350 years of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Link to Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Primary Sources on The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Angel Island, San Francisco (1910-1940)
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Immigration Station, Angel Island, San Francisco Bay |
About Angel Island
Known as the Ellis Island of the West
Built to handle influx of European immigrants coming to California through the Panama Canal that never happened; instead majority of immigrants came from China, Japan and other parts of Asia and they were detained for weeks or months at the station
Wong Chung Hong was the first recorded person to enter the country after being admitted and detained at Angel Island.
Native Americans from the Muwekma Ohlone tribe were the first inhabitants of the island
Japanese Immigrants, 1860 to 2008
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems, a lesson plan on realities of immigration through Angel Island.
For more on Angel Island, see United States History II.3 on immigration after the Civil War,
When the "Enemy" Landed at Angel Island, National Archives, Summer 2009
- Discusses the arrival of non-Asian immigrants at Angel Island during the early 20th century
Link to Dramatic Event page on Chinese Immigration to the United States
Pelican Island, Galveston Texas
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Former Immigration Station, Galveston, Texas |
Forgotten Gateway: Coming to America through Galveston Island, Houston Museum of Natural Science
Ellis Island on the Gulf: Remembering the Galveston Movement, Houston Public Media
- Between 1907 and 1915, 10,000 Jewish Immigrants from the Russian Empire passed through the Port of Galveston
- Fleeing persecution and death in Europe
Galveston Immigration Database from Galveston Historical Foundation
Records Open Window to Immigration Past, Houston Chronicle (April 25, 2015)
The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900
- The deadliest natural disaster and hurricane in U.S. history
Columbia River Quarantine Station, Washington State
Known as the Ellis Island on the Columbia River
Columbia River Quarantine Station at Knappton is Established, May 9, 1899, Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
Columbia River's Ellis Island: The Story of Knappton Cover, Washington State Library
Link to dramatic event page The 1918 Influenza Pandemic
The American/Mexican Border
Image from Business Insider
The border is 1993 miles long
How Crossing the U.S. Mexico Border Became a Crime
- For most of American history, immigrants could enter the United States without official permission and not fear criminal prosecution by the federal government
- That changed with the Immigration Act of 1929
How We Got Here: The Roads We Took to America, Houston Institute for Culture
Link to Mexican Immigration to the United States
5 Facts About Mexico and Immigration to the United States, Pew Research Center (February 11, 2016)
Using Military at the U.S. - Mexican Border, an interesting lesson plan (for older students) from PBS about Esequiel Hernandez, a young man shot down by Marines at the border.
Further Reading:
Contemporary Immigrant Gateways in Historical Perspective, focusing on 'settlement trends of immigrants during the periods that bookend the twentieth century, both eras of mass migration', an article by Audrey Singer.
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