On the journey to their new lives in America, 10% of the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island were detained in its hospital complex. Abandoned since 1954, the complex was opened to the public in 2014 and offers a fascinating glimpse into the past.
The first immigrant to enter the US via Ellis Island when it opened on January 1, 1892, was Annie Moore, an Irish teenager, accompanied by her two younger brothers. Over 12 million immigrants followed in her footsteps in the decades that followed, an estimated 3 million of them Irish.
But not all who arrived at Ellis Island proceeded swiftly to their new lives in America. Two percent of the hopeful Ellis Island immigrants were deported back to their own countries if they were deemed unfit to journey onwards into America. But deportation was a last resort. More often, immigrants who were sick or thought to be potentially mentally unfit to pass immigration inspection were brought to Ellis Island’s massive hospital complex…