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Immigration History Film Clips  "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?""
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." In an effort to keep the writers and actors of the Works Progress Administration busy, FDR's Department of the Interior produced a 26-part radio program intended "to prove that America could never have become so great without the contributions" of all the various hyphenated groups that make up the country. On Sunday afternoon throughout much of 1938, Americans could gather around their radios, if they had them, and hear their "identity groups" being praised by the Government: African-Americans tuned in on December 18th; the WASP show was on December fourth.
The testimony given in this column from the early Twenties is as true today as it was then. It was written by a 1905 immigrant who observed that the first word immigrants learn when arriving in America is "BUY". When presented at every corner with products they'd never seen before in tandem with the smiling and encouraging face of the sales staff, the immigrant can't help but feel an inner drive to join the American society:
"And when he succumbs, why wonder that he grows more aggressive, demanding higher wages and striking when the demand is denied?" |
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