Ellis Island
Between 1905 and 1914, an average of one million immigrants per year arrived in the United States. Immigration officials reviewed about 5,000 immigrants per day during peak times at Ellis Island. Two-thirds of those individuals emigrated from eastern, southern and central Europe. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. The all-time daily high occurred on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants arrived. After the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, which greatly restricted immigration and allowed processing at overseas embassies, the only immigrants to pass through the station were those who had problems with their immigration paperwork, displaced persons, and war refugees. Today, over 100 million Americans—about one-third to 40% of the population of the United States—can trace their ancestry to immigrants who arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.
Italian Welfare League
The IWL had offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Ellis Island. At the Ellis Island office, they assisted Italians who were having trouble with immigration, including hundreds who were detained on the island during World War II. The league helped Italian New Yorkers find jobs, housing, and medical care, and provided emergency aid to the needy. In response to the Americanization Movement, they helped Italian immigrants learn to speak English and conform to the social norms of Anglo-Saxon Protestant America. From 1934 to 1973, executive secretary Angela Carlozzi Rossi oversaw much of the league's activity, in addition to handling many cases personally.