Angel Island Immigration Research Paper

Words: 887
Pages: 4

A new era of immigration started in the early 1900’s. People from all over the world were arriving in the States through Angel Island and Ellis Island. Even though these two facilities processed millions of immigrants, the treatment and rates at which people were allowed into the country made these two facilities entirely different. Ellis Island processed mainly European immigrants who entered New York; while Angel Island processed mainly Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants through California. Before Angel Island, America’s Open Door Policy had created a boom in new Asian and Pacific Islander laborers who worked for cheap and entrepreneurs. Friction between American and Chinese citizens grew and created an anti-Chinese sentiment throughout …show more content…
It wasn’t long until acts of racism and violence against Asian and Pacific Islanders became common and at one point decriminalized due to the Supreme Court’s ruling to find Chinese testimony against white citizens indismissable. Other acts of racism became just as common, including many political cartoons that showed Chinese and other Asian immigrants taking advantage and creating a monopoly for different American industries in addition to encouraging the refusal of their entry into America. The Immigration Station at Angel Island developed into a place for Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants who needed further authorization to be held due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. They would be held anywhere from a week to years to obtain a witness for their arrival and those weeks, months, and even years were spent in immigration barracks offering little to no space, unhealthy food, and unknown and untreated disease. During this time, immigrants underwent meticulous and excessive interrogations and tests as a way for officials to ‘catch them in a lie’ per se. This differs greatly from the processing and treatment at Ellis Island, described as only taking a few hours at most for those who needed further medical screenings or other testing4. With the arrival of individuals through Ellis Island and Angel Island, a new form of immigration took off in the U.S. Millions of immigrants were processed by these facilities, but Angel Island Immigration Station became a place where immigrants faced tough screenings, harsh conditions, along with blatant racism and xenophobia through flat-out face-to-face interactions and legal measures. Overall, the