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Immigration History Film Clips  A report that anticipated a hefty load of European immigrants for 1923 (but no where near the 2021 - 23 scale). "The gross quota allowance of immigration for the new year is the same as for the last, 357,803, of which 20% or 71,000 is the maximum which may arrive in any single month... Germany has sent only 43,000 immigrants, although her quota was 67,000."
Here is a 1937 article concerning those stout souls who thought they'd make their way into the United States illegally - but made it no further than Ellis Island:
"Aliens who have sneaked into the country are, by the fact of their entry, lawbreakers... Out of gratitude to a country which has welcomed them, is it too much to ask the properly qualified alien to register, in order that his fraudulent countrymen me be detected and sent home?""
William B. Wilson (1862 - 1834) was the first to be appointed Secretary of Labor, and in this article he weighs the needs of Europe for fighting men and the needs of the United States for laborers. It is a very dry article and difficult to get through, but, happily, the most interesting factoids can be found in the opening paragraphs when he explains how many new immigrants chose to leave the United States in order to fight for their old countries in Europe. This article lays out the many responsibilities and challenges that made up the day of a U.S. Border Patrol officer stationed along the Rio Grande in 1940:
"In one month these rookies must try to absorb French and Spanish, immigration law, criminal law, naturalization, citizenship and expatriation law, fingerprinting, criminal investigation, first aid, firearms and the laws of the open country through which refugees are tracked down in the desert and forest."
Click here to read a 1937 article about the illeagal immigrants who came through Ellis Island. Apparently during the pit of the Great Depression there were complaints coming from a few frustrated corners about the number of foreign talents that were being hired to entertain us in the movie business. An old Hollywood salt answered this complaint head-on:
"The average world-fan cares nothing that Chaplin is an Englishman, Garbo a Swede, Novarro a Mexican, Bergner a German or Boyer a Frenchman." |
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