Located in San Francisco Bay, the Angel Island immigration post served as the main immigration center on the west coast of the United States from 1910 to 1940. Many immigrants from China and other Asian countries are there. were detained for long periods thanks to China’s exclusion law. (1882) and other discriminatory immigration laws.
The era of Chinese exclusion
Immigrants from China began to arrive in the United States en masse as a result of the Gold Rush. Some worked as miners; others found jobs on farms, in textile factories or in the construction of the transcontinental railroad. At the time, the federal government did little to regulate immigration, leaving it to the states instead. But with the growing influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia, federal authorities decided to intervene, especially after an economic downturn in the 1870s that led many Americans to blame immigrant workers for their woes. .
Due to the growing strength of the eugenics movement – which feared “contamination” of the white race by other races or ethnicities – Chinese immigrants were seen as a far greater threat than those from Ireland or Germany. In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act, which blocked entry to Chinese, Japanese, and Asian workers involuntarily brought to the United States, as well as Asian women brought in for prostitution.
The Page Act was followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese workers from coming to the United States, limited immigration to those who already had relatives living in the country, and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens. naturalized.
Angel Island: Western “Ellis Island”?
Under Chinese Exclusion Law, U.S. immigration officials were required to inspect every Chinese passenger arriving by boat in San Francisco before they could be allowed to disembark. As this process often took more than a day, passengers were initially detained on steamboats anchored in the harbor for this purpose. In 1892, a building near the port was transformed into a “detention shed”, which often became overcrowded and unsanitary.
When Congress finally allocated funds to build an immigration center in San Francisco, Angel Island was seen as the place to be. Historically the home of the Miwok Native Americans, the 740-acre island had since housed a large Mexican ranch and a US military base. After many delays in construction, the immigration post was hastily completed and opened on January 21, 1910 on the northeastern edge of Angel Island.
Although known as “Ellis Island of the West”, Angel Island operated very differently from its New York counterpart. Ellis Island served as a processing center primarily for European immigrants, who were seen as easily assimilated into American society and faced relatively few obstacles in entering the United States.
In contrast, many of the immigrants who arrived through Angel Island came from Asian countries, mainly China, and were subjected to lengthy interrogations and detentions to prevent illegal entry.
How things worked on Angel Island
From 1910 to 1940, approximately 500,000 immigrants from 80 countries – including Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Canada, and Central and South America – were processed by Angel Island. The vast majority came from China or other Asian countries, including Japan, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands, Korea and Vietnam.
Upon arrival in San Francisco, passengers on a ship would be separated by nationality. Europeans and first-class passengers would have their papers processed on board the ship and could disembark. Asian immigrants and other groups, including Mexicans and Russians, as well as those believed to need medical quarantine, have been sent to Angel Island.
An unidentified man interviewed by US officials at Angel Island Immigration Station, Tiburon, California, 1923.
PhotoQuest / Getty Images
The Chinese Exclusion Law and related laws only allowed entry to a few elite professions, as well as children of US citizens. Interrogators screened potential immigrants with detailed questions, including biographical information about their families and the homes where loved ones lived. Many immigrants went to great lengths, memorizing details of false identities as skilled workers or relatives of Chinese-Americans. According to one estimate, some 150,000 people entered the United States illegally as “sons of paper” or “daughters of paper” during the Chinese exclusion era.
Authorities on Angel Island subjected immigrants to extensive interrogation in an attempt to prevent this type of illegal entry. While processing arrivals to Ellis Island normally took a few hours or a few days at most, immigrants could spend weeks, months, or even years on Angel Island. Due to its secluded location, it was believed to be escape-proof, like another nearby facility: Alcatraz.
Treatment center during WWII
In August 1940, a fire destroyed the main administration building on Angel Island and the treatment of immigrants was transferred to the mainland. Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Law in 1943, but continued to limit immigration from China to just 105 people per year until the Immigration and Nationality Law was passed in 1965.
During World War II, the U.S. military used the Angel Island immigration post as a processing center for prisoners of war, as well as a detention center for hundreds of Japanese immigrants from Hawaii and the Americas. .
Poetry from the Isle of Angels
Abandoned after the war, the buildings deteriorated until the 1970s, when the discovery of more than 200 Chinese poems carved into the walls by longtime immigrants inspired efforts to preserve Angel Island and commemorate his role in it. history of Pacific immigration. The Angel Island Immigration Station, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997, was later remodeled and opened to the public as a California State Park.
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Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Gateway for immigrants to America (Oxford University Press, 2010)
History of Angel Island Immigration Post, Angel Island Immigration Post Foundation
Richard Lui, “Paper Sons”. CNN, November 14, 2009.
