NOVEMBER 12

On this date in 1954, Ellis Island ceased being used by the federal government. The island sits in New York Harbor. 

It had opened in 1892 and saw 12 million immigrants pass through it's gates in 62 years - but mostly in the first 30 years.  Prior to Ellis Island being opened, immigrants were processed at the port of entry by the state; most in Manhattan, NY and Boston, MA.  A total of 450,000 immigrants were processed the first year Ellis was open.

The processing of immigrants in the early part of the last century (thru 1920) included a primary inspection and questionnaire for basic info; a medical inspection to catch communicable diseases and to sort people for their ability to work; and unofficially a eugenic inspection in which an inspector would judge if a person had good genes. 

In 1921, Congress passed an Immigration Quota Act that greatly reduced the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country.  Within a few years, Ellis Island was used mainly as a holding area for those to be deported. 

Since the year 2000, the number of legal immigrants taken into the U.S. each year is roughly one million.    Of those million each year, about 600,000 are 'change of status' persons who had been here working on legalization.  Right now there are about 37,000,000 legal immigrants in the U.S.A.  That is over 10% of the total population of the country (327,000,000).
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