Today in History - Nov 12 - Ellis Island

November 12 is the anniversary of the closure of the Ellis Island Immigrant Detention Centre in 1954. It's last inmate was a Norwegian merchant seaman who had overstayed his shore leave.

Originally designed as an immigrant processing facility, it was opened in 1892 next to the statue of liberty. At the time the US was very interested in accepting new white settlers from Europe, and the optics of entering the country in sight of the statue of liberty was a great propaganda move.

But of course, when the US speaks of liberty, it should be noted that it was not meant for all. If immigrants failed a medical test due to physical disabilities or disease, they would be detained or deported. Women without escort would be detained or deported. People deemed "immoral" by the US regime would be detained or deported. Over 120,000 people were deported from this facility. One in five immigrants spent at least some time in detention. Half of those for political reasons.

By 1919, a mere 27 years after it was opened, all pretenses of it being a welcoming place were erased. Americans had become increasingly alarmed about the perceived ethnically inferior quality of immigrants, and were in the process of drafting laws to deal with the problem. That year saw the palmer raids begin mass deportation of the regime's political enemies. Detention and deportation of these people was done on Ellis Island.

The centre thus spent the last 35 years of its life as a prison. Today, it's been restored and re-opened as an Immigration Museum despite spending most of its life as a prison. The US currently has over 200 immigrant prisons which hold tens of thousands of racially undesirable people enslaved under terrible conditions. The optics of doing this in the shadow of the statue of liberty was probably deemed as undesirable as their skin colour.