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.
Immigration Act of 1891
Ellis Island, an immigrant inspection station in Upper New York Bay (near New York City) on the East Coast of the United States opened on January 2, 1892, shortly after the passage of the Immigration Act of 1891. It would be the busiest immigration inspection. Immigrant inspection at Ellis Island was carried out as per the specifications of the Immigration Act of 1891. The medical examination to determine medical excludability (as described in Section 1 of the Act) and detention of migrants with medical conditions were carried out at the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital located in the south side of the island.