letting EVERYONE in--because we did NOT do that, not by a long shot.
We didn't want all the tired and the poor. If they were sick, a potential burden on the state, or criminals, we sent 'em back.
Only the ones in good health, in a certain age range, who could work when we needed more minimum wage workers, were assured a trot down the gangway. A little old lady coming over had better have had fine strong sons to support her.
This is just what happened at Ellis Island--not the only place immigrants entered USA:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/peopleevents/e_ellis.html
"The New World's 'Golden Door' was, for some, a place of protracted anguish. While the immigration service efficiently channeled millions through Ellis Island's Main Building, countless others awaited their fates in the hospital and infectious disease wards on the south side of the island. Some recuperated sufficiently to enter America, but others were returned to their homelands."
The Golden Door
Many thousands of immigrants came to know Ellis Island as "detained petitioners to the New World." These determined individuals had crossed oceans, under the burden of fear and persecution, famine and numbing poverty, to make a new life in America. For some, the story ended happily; for others, in prolonged uncertainty about which way the "Golden Door" would swing.
Quick, Fateful Exams
Ellis Island New arrivals were processed quickly. In the Registry Room, Public Health Service doctors looked to see if any of them wheezed, coughed, shuffled or limped. Children were asked their names to make sure they weren't deaf or dumb. Toddlers were taken from their mothers' arms and made to walk. As the line moved forward, doctors had only a few seconds to check each immigrant for sixty symptoms of disease. Of primary concern were cholera, favus (scalp and nail fungus), tuberculosis, insanity, epilepsy, and mental impairments. The disease most feared was trachoma, a highly contagious eye infection that could lead to blindness and death.
Hospital Wards
Once registered, immigrants were free to enter the New World and start their new lives. But if they were sick, they spent days, weeks, months even, in a warren of rooms. Some, like the tuberculosis ward, were open to the sea, where a gentle New York harbor breeze cleansed their lungs, improving their chances. Other rooms were solitary, forlorn places where the illness itself decided when to leave or stay. Most patients in the hospital or Contagious Disease Ward recovered, but some were not so lucky. More than 120,000 immigrants were sent back to their countries of origin, and during the island's half-century of operation more than 3,500 immigrants died there.
Detainees
Ellis Island waylaid certain arrivals, including those likely to become public charges, such as unescorted women and children. Women could not leave Ellis Island with a man not related to them. Other detainees included stowaways, alien seamen, anarchists, Bolsheviks, criminals and those judged to be "immoral." Approximately 20 percent of immigrants inspected at Ellis Island were temporarily detained, half for health reasons and half for legal reasons.
We, as a nation, tend to take in more people from varied backgrounds than other countries, but we've always been picky. We haven't been in the habit of welcoming people in so we can support them--that's just the truth. We've always wanted earners. That PBS special was interesting--a bit heartbreaking, but interesting.
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