When the alien reaches the inspector, he produces his card, and the officer finds his name upon the manifest. Immigrant Inspection Card Containing the Immigrant's Name and Location on the Passenger ManifestĪt the end of each passageway is a desk at which sits an immigrant inspector. Inspection Card for Immigrants and Steerage Passengers on the RMS Oceanic, Departing Liverpool for New York on 5 June 1901 and Arriving in New York Ellis ISland on 14 June 1901. On the steamer, each immigrant is given a card with his name and a number or letter which tells the particular manifest on which his name appears and, in marshaling immigrants for examination by the inspectors, care is taken that those appearing on the same manifest shall proceed along the same passageway. The remaining immigrants are then segregated into columns which pass down the various passageways above referred to. Persons with loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases, epileptics, idiots, insane persons, and those physically defective so that they are liable to become public charges, and pregnant women, are at once held for examination before a board of special inquiry. GGA Image ID # 1f211c2393įemale Physician Examines a Woman at Ellis Island. Women Immigrants are Examined by the Doctors at Ellis Island. The women are examined individually by a matron or her assistants, whose business it is to ascertain whether or not they are pregnant, as this increases the probability of their becoming public charges unless they can produce satisfactory evidence that they will be taken care of and supported. Minor defects are noted on the immigrant's card mentioned below, which he has already received on the ship, and he is passed along for general inspection.ĭetained Immigrants in a Waiting Room at Ellis Island. Before reaching these, however, immigrants have to pass in single file before two surgeons of the Marine Hospital Service, stationed a little distance apart, who divide the inspection between them, one examining general physique, and the other for trachoma.Īny doubtful individuals are held for a more thorough physical examination, and idiots, insane, and diseased persons are certified as such. The main hall, which is on the second floor, is also divided lengthwise by gratings into a series of parallel passageways. They enter a large general room separated from the rest of the building by iron gratings. The steerage passengers and any other aliens held by the inspectors are then taken with their baggage upon barges and carried to Ellis Island. If advisable, these are presently transferred to the immigrant hospital. Upon the completion of the cabin inspection, the ship's surgeon reports any persons in the ship's hospital. In the examination of passengers, inspectors can use their discretion as to ask any or all of the questions on the manifests and can avoid absurd and unnecessary inquiries. The examination of cabin passengers is a comparatively recent thing and was necessitated by the fact that many inadmissible aliens undertook to travel in the second cabin to avoid inspection. The State authorities examine first for diseases which would subject the vessel to quarantine, and the immigration inspectors and Marine Hospital officers examine all the first and second cabin passengers. When a ship arrives in New York harbor, telegraphic notice of its entrance is sent ahead, and the vessel is boarded by the State quarantine inspectors, and by the immigration inspectors and surgeons. Inasmuch as three-fourths of all aliens pass through the port of New York, a brief description of the practical method of inspection there may be of interest. In spite of the fact that the Bureau has now been in existence fifteen years, the inspection of immigrants varies somewhat at the different ports, according to the number to be inspected, the importance of the port, and the physical accommodations for such service. The Secretary appoints all immigration officers and employees and fixes their compensation. The Commissioner-General is under the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, or practically, one of the assistant Secretaries of that department. He can detail officers to visit penal and charitable institutions and ascertain the number of aliens therein, and he may send officers abroad to study conditions of immigration. Under the present law, the Commissioner-General has general supervision of the administration of immigration matters. The systematic and uniform examination of aliens began with the establishment of the Immigration Bureau in 1891. Immigration and Its Effects Upon The United States (Note 90) The Inspection And Registration Of Immigrants (1906)
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