Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Having recently returned from a family trip to New York City, where my kids wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty, I was able to also make a trip to the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. It's part of the official Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island tour (which attracts approximately 4 million visitors per year). I was impressed by the number of historical documents -- steamship ledgers, passports, anti-immigrant political propaganda, and photographs -- on display. The Registry Room, where in-person inspections to determine one's entry, was also worth seeing. It does take a full day for the tour though, and during the summer the whole tour is extremely crowded. Given the current state of immigration discourse though, it was a good time to reflect (and to see visitors reflecting) on the country's immigration history and our stated commitment to the ideals inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

















I was also reminded of Hiroshi Motomura's video comparing the histories of Angel Island near San Francisco, and the long-term detention of mainly Chinese immigrants there, with the comparatively more idealized history of Ellis Island.

-JKoh

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2016/08/immprof-on-vacation-photos-from-ellis-island-national-museum-of-immigration.html